GMX Adventures
by Scorpio71
Summary: The Adventures of Gambit, Methos and a cursed one-eyed cat named Xander: Gambit's life takes a turn for the surreal. Then stuff happens.
1. GMX I

_**The Adventures of Gambit, Methos and a cursed one-eyed cat named Xander**_

Genre: crossover, series of related ficlets  
Characters: Gambit (X-Men), Methos (Highlander) and Xander (Buffy)  
Rating: R (to be safe - each ficlet varies)  
Disclaimer: I don't own any character from any of the various fandoms. I'm not making $ from this.  
Summary: Gambit's life takes a turn for the surreal. Then stuff happens.

* * *

1 – Brooding

Gambit was brooding on the roof of Xavier's School for Gifted Children. When he first got back from Antarctica, the other members of the X-Men had avoided him as often as he tried to avoid them. Now that he had healed up enough to start going on missions, X-Men approved or independent, he'd found that they were almost forcibly cheery around him as if to try and prove to themselves that the past was just that, the past.

It was sometimes difficult to say who had more guilt and righteous anger; the X-Men were in a rage over the Morlocks while he was swamped with guilt about the massacre. On the other hand, he was furious over being left to die in the frozen wasteland of the south, while they felt terribly guilty over it. The whole mess was made even more poignant when it was pointed out by those who weren't there for the trial that Gambit had never been given the chance to tell his side of the story, nor did they have all the facts. As it stood, easily half the X-Men still thought that he was guilty enough to deserve death or banishment despite being forced to make nice by the others.

Being totally honest with himself, Gambit had to admit that the mansion the X-Men made their base of operations no longer felt like a home to him. And it had before, as surprising as that had been to the lonely young thief banished from his home town. What had started out as a quest to help a sweet young thief return to her family had turned into finding a new place to call home for himself.

Antarctica ruined that. He no longer felt that sense of close kinship. The mansion was now simply a place to sleep and the X-Men were just some people he knew and worked with on occasion. That was saddening.

To make a tense situation worse, Rogue was blowing hot and cold. One moment she seemed as if she wanted to pick up their relationship where it had left off and the next she was guilt ridden and pushed him away. Added to that was his own confusion and guilt over Jake Gavin Jr getting turned into a woman by Sinister. Jake had been there to help him and he hadn't protected Jake from Sinister even though he knew how dangerous the madman could be. Now Jake was stuck in a female body and going by the name Jackie. How do you apologize for that? So sorry your dick fell off, have this nice set of tits as a consolation prize…non, not good enough.

Part of him wanted to encourage Rouge to take him back and try to regain the closeness he once shared with the X-Men. Part of him wanted to go find Jake and promise to take care of him…her, whatever, now that his world had been turned upside down on Gambit's behalf. One tiny part of him wanted to strike out on his own. He knew that he was at a crossroad in his life, but which option would lead to the best future?

With a snort he muttered, "Gambit sometimes wish a hole would open up and drop him in it. That way he don' have t' deal wit' any of this crap."

In a flash of heat, a young woman with a deformed face appeared before him. With an oddly harsh and grating voice she intoned, "Wish granted." At that point, a large swirling vortex of light and sound sprung into being beneath his feet and Gambit tumbled into the hole in reality.

**

* * *

**

2 – Down the Rabbit Hole

Gravity turned inside out and then attempted to do the same to Gambit. Flashes of light nearly blinded him as it shifted from the normal human visual spectrum and into the ultraviolet. He could still see due to his mutation, but the UV light frequencies made his eyes throb. A blast of inferno heat, a wash of artic cold and then gravity vomited all over him and his body was tossed about like a ship caught in a whirlpool. Not even Vertigo, the bitch, had ever made him feel so dizzy and nauseous.

Just as Gambit didn't think he could take this hellish ride through the middle of the universe anymore, it got worse. With a bone jarring thud and a yelp of pain, he slammed into another being. It was a giant black cat with one eye…non, a man wearing an eye patch. Wait…it really was a cat. One the size of a tiger, only all black.

He had half a second to worry if the panic stricken animal was going to bite him or claw him to pieces when it did the unexpected. The cat wrapped its forelegs around Gambit's neck, braced its hind legs against his hips and then shredded his psi-shields. In an instant, his shaky control over his very minor telepathy, his wild empathy and his finely honed spatial awareness bled out of his head and splashed across multiple Astral Planes.

Then the cat's mind was in his mind, a link forged between them with a power that Gambit didn't recognize or understand. Foreign thoughts, emotions and memories poured into his mind. It was very confusing since none of the things swirling into him from the cat's mind were organized. Instead, panic and chaos seemed to twist it all up into a big mess, leaving Gambit even more disoriented and fighting off the beginning of a huge migraine.

He grabbed hold of the cat by reflex, but whether to clutch it tightly or to push it away he wasn't sure and would never get to find out. Before Gambit could do anything the cat was flung out of his mind by his mutant psi abilities, no matter how poorly trained they might be. The link was still there though, even if the true melding of minds had ended and Gambit could feel the cat's shock and its thoughts slowly coming into order.

They were human thoughts!

Twin red on black eyes blinked in surprise at one deep chocolate eye even as Gambit desperately tried to understand the concept of a giant black cat with human thoughts. He didn't get to figure it out when his psi-shields suddenly reestablished themselves and slammed back into place. Gambit groaned at the mental pain of having his freed abilities once again locked up in such an abrupt manner and shuddered in the cat's embrace, his fingers tightening in the black fur under his hands.

He had just enough time to realize his shields hadn't severed the mental link between them when they fell out of the black hole they were tumbling through and slammed into some poor shit sitting on his couch and watching a Manchester United game.

**

* * *

**

3 – The Standoff

Gambit felt a bit like Alice, especially since he had just fallen through a mystical rabbit hole that took him from the rooftop at Xavier's School for Gifted Children to some crazy guy's apartment half-way across the world. So, there he stood in his full Guild Colors and his armor with his telescopic bo staff fully extended in one hand and three uncharged poker cards in the other. The crazy man he'd landed on when he fell out of said rabbit hole was barefoot in a pair of worn denim jeans, an oversized ratty sweater and was glaring at him over an Ivan Hoe broadsword with a live edge on the blade.

Just to add to the whole surreal feeling of his horribly bad day, the giant black cat that he'd slammed into in the middle of the rabbit hole was pacing back and forth between them growling and snarling. Out loud. That didn't stop Gambit from hearing him curse, swear and rant in English inside his head with telepathy.

=Stupid crazy witches! Stupid crazy demons! Stupid Hellmouth!=

The cat snarled and swiped out with one huge paw, long retractable claws fully extended. An innocent lamp died as it flew off the end table and crashed against the wall.

=Why me!? Why! It's always me. Demon magnet. Comic relief boy. The Zeppo!=

Gambit couldn't help it. He could have kicked his own ass as soon as the words left his mouth, but he just could not help himself.

"Zeppo? Demon magnet? What de hell, homme?"

=Hell is right! I am sooo very sick and tired of…= The cat stopped pacing and turned to look at Gambit, a look of shock on it's furry face. =You can understand me?=

Gambit blinked. "Oui. Can understand y', least…think I do? Y' a telepath, oui?"

The guy with the broadsword blinked and looked at him like he was insane. "What? Who are you? Where did you come from?"

=I'm not a telepath! Willow can do the telepathy thing, not me. Okay, so she had the spell up and running when I fell through the portal, but still… You can hear me? Really?=

Gambit glanced from one to the other. "Um… De cat talkin' t' Gambit in his head wit' telepathy. We both just met in de portal thing." He shrugged and waved the hand holding the poker cards at the ceiling. "Gambit was on de roof and a hole opened up under his feet and then he fall in and hit de cat. Then Gambit and de cat fall out of de portal thing and, bam, we in your living room."

The man reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose with the hand that wasn't holding the sword. "Wait a minute."

He pointed. "You're Gambit?"

Gambit nodded.

The man pointed at the cat. "This…panther is talking to you in your head with telepathy."

Gambit nodded again.

The man pinched the bridge of his nose again and spoke with a tone of voice that suggested he thought Gambit was insane and that he was an inch away from doing massive violence.

"And you got here in my home by way of a magic portal that opened up under your feet?"

Gambit tilted his head slightly and nodded a third time. "Oui. An' before y' ask, it sounds just as crazy t' Gambit as it does t' you. Try livin' it from my perspective, heh?"

**

* * *

**

4 - Truce

"I need a beer."

Gambit blinked, considered everything that had happened to him so far that day and noted that the day was not even close to being over, nodded and agreed.

"Oui. Beer'd be bien. Bourbon be even better, heh?"

The man with the sword snorted and nodded his head.

=Yeah, easy for you to say. How the hell would I even be able to drink a beer? I've been turned into a freakin' cat!=

Gambit's eyes widened a bit and he tilted his head slightly to look at the pissed off feline that seemed to be an inch away from fluffing up its fur and spitting a hissy-fit.

"Wha?... Turned into a cat? Ain't y' always been a cat, homme?"

The man with the sword gasped, then shook his head. "Make that lots of beer," he muttered.

=Um…no. I'm supposed to be a twenty-seven year old one-eyed ex-carpenter. I got caught in the crossfire of some nasty black-arts witches trying to raise a minor demon outta hell while my girls tried to banish it. Next thing I know, a spell splashes all over me, the world turns inside out and I'm a big black cat falling through a hole in the dimensional barriers and slamming into you.=

Gambit stared a minute. The surreal atmosphere took a turn and he wasn't sure if it was tragic or hilarious, but he was pretty sure that they were all victims of fate and not each other's enemies. Of course, this all made him realize that he should've just gone to see Jake and tried to apologize for the unforgivable.

"Truce?" His eyes shifted from the swordsman to the telepathic cat and back. "You don' slice anyone up, de cat don' chew anyone up and Gambit won' blow us all t' kingdom come. Instead, de three of us get a beer and figure this craziness out. Sounds good, heh?"

The man and the cat looked over at him for a long minute.

=Sure. Sounds fine to me. Especially since I'm positive that neither of you'll taste any good.=

Gambit grinned. "An' y' just go on thinkin' that, mon chat noir."

The swordsman in the tatty sweater narrowed his eyes. "Thinking what, exactly?"

"That you and Gambit pro'lly taste bad."

A smirk flickered across his face swiftly before fading. "Blow us all to kingdom come? How?"

This time it was Gambit that smirked. He held out the hand with the poker cards and charged them lightly. A soft pink glow lit the room and he flipped one of them into the air. It exploded with a soft POP and the ashes drifted down to the ground. Then, he slowly pulled the charge on the other two cards back into himself.

"Gambit charge de cards, throw de cards and then de cards go boom." He grinned a wicked sort of grin. "Bang! You dead."

The man stared for a long moment and then nodded. "Fine. Truce, then." He pinched the bridge of his nose and swung the big broadsword up onto his shoulder. "I still need a beer."

**

* * *

**

5 - Introductions

Gambit sat on a comfortable leather covered chair with his collapsed bo staff in one hand and a beer in the other. The man who owned the condo they were in sat on what was left of his couch with his sword across his lap and a bottle of beer as well. The big black cat lay on the floor off to the side, a large ceramic bowl filled with beer sitting between his two huge front paws. He was making a mess trying to figure out how to actually drink it.

Gambit tilted his head listening to the rambling words pouring into his mind.

"De chat noir say his name be Alexander Harris, but everyone calls him Xander fo' short. He really a man that was cursed by some evil witches t' be a cat." He quirked an eyebrow and grinned at the man. "Apparently, de magic go 'wonky' around him, so instead of a ten pound housecat, he be a two-hun'red an' twenty pound housecat de size of a tiger."

Gambit took a long sip of his beer and tilted his head again as more babble was sent to him via telepathy. It was a lot like listening to Jubilee talk, so he didn't have as much trouble translating the California slang and rapid-fire words as he would have otherwise.

"Seems that he was workin' wit' some good witches tryin' t' stop de evil ones. One of them had a spell t' link them all up wit' telepathy. When he be turned into a cat, he fell into de portal they try t' banish de demon through and de telepathy spell was still active. Xander thinks that de spell latched onto Gambit since he be de only one that can support a mental link without magic."

The man finished his beer, tossed the empty bottle aside and cracked open a new one. He downed half of it in one go before taking a deep breath and pinching the bridge of his nose again. "Not enough beer in the world for this…"

Gambit chuckled and took a big gulp of his own beer.

"And you? What's your story? The cat, Xander, is a cursed man from a world with magic, witches, and demons. What about you, 'cause I can tell you right now that we don't have people with glowing red eyes and the ability to explode things with a simple touch."

Gambit nodded and grew grim. He didn't like talking about himself, but he knew that he had to. At least the basics, just like Xander had. He knew that there was a whole lot about his world and himself that Xander had left out, but now wasn't the time. This was just the bare facts needed to know who and what each other was.

"Gambit be a mutant." At the raised eyebrows from the man and the wash of interest/confusion from the cat, he continued. "In de world Gambit from, there be a bunch'a folks born wit' what's called a 'mutated genetic sequence'. It's different for each of us like that, but it can make y' look different, like Gambit's eyes. Or it can give y' a skill or ability like how Gambit can tap into de kinetic potential of inanimate objects an' then excite those atoms until de whole thing goes boom."

The man nodded thoughtfully and sat for a long minute thinking over what Gambit had said while the cat, Xander, bombarded Gambit with memories of comic-books. He caught the names Batman, Superman, Justice League and the concept of meta-humans which Xander seemed to equate mutants to. There was none of the fear and hatred that Gambit had come to expect from normal flatscans when confronted with mutants, but then again Xander came from a world with witches and demons so people with strange powers wasn't odd for him.

"And your name?"

Gambit looked over at the man who had just cracked open another beer. The man was looking back at him with shrewd knowing eyes and the hint of a grin. Gambit grinned back and saluted him with his own beer.

"Remy Lebeau, Master T'ief and mutant freedom fighter, at y' service. Most folks just call him Gambit, though."

The man smirked and nodded, before growing serious and sighing softly.

"On this world, we don't have mutants, nor powerful witches and demons. Oh, we have a few people with the odd talent or two, but nothing like you both mention. The ones with the power on this world are the immortals. Men and women who die a violent death and then revive; never aging, never dying, just moving through time and battling each other in an effort to reach some elusive and unknowable prize."

Gambit tilted his head, in what was fast becoming a tell for when Xander spoke to him telepathically. "Good point, mon ami." He focused back on the man and said, "So…how old you be, homme?"

A flash of humor streaked across the man's face. "I'm the oldest. My name is Methos, although in this time and place I go by Adam Pierson."

**

* * *

**

6 - Musings

Gambit finished off his beer and thought about everything that Methos had told them about immortals and The Game. It seemed like a hard and lonely way to spend eternity to him, but the brutality and ruthlessness didn't bother him as much as it probably should have.

He had spent his preschool years as a slave in a collection of mutant children owned by a corrupt sorcerer, his childhood years living homeless on the streets of the Big Easy, and his teen years in a war zone between the Thieves and Assassins Guilds. After that, he was banished from his home, lost control of his mutant powers, got tangled up with a mad scientist who liked to hover somewhere between genocide and forced eugenics and after all that he found himself a member of a mutant terrorist group and fighting for his life on a regular basis.

No, he was no stranger to brutality or ruthlessness.

He was fairly certain that both Methos and Xander could match his stories with ones of their own. Neither of them had lived easy lives, even if the length of Methos' life was beyond ridiculous. Still, despite all of their individual and collective experience with the strange and the difficult, each of them found something about this whole mess that just plucked at their nerves.

Methos seemed to be alternately fascinated and offended by the concept of multiple dimensions. It was something he'd never really considered in his long life and the proof of their existence landing on his couch after falling out of a magic portal into his living room had seriously twisted his sense of reality. Understandable, after five-thousand years, the man was a little old to be having an existential crisis.

Xander, on the other hand, seemed to be fairing the worst. Alternate dimensions, head-hunting immortals, powerful mutants, newfound telepathy, none of it fazed him in the least. Being turned into a cat? Well, that was a whole other story. To be blunt, he didn't know how to be a cat. If he was distracted completely, then he tended to get by on instinct and will-power, but if he had to actually think about what he was doing than his confusion and self-doubt messed him up. He didn't know how to eat or drink or walk or jump or anything really. He had to learn how to live in his new body and it was driving him batty.

For himself, Gambit was just trying to deal with having a telepathic link into head. Not that Xander meant to do it. They both had figured that the spell had sensed his psi abilities and latched on to him by reflex. Gambit was half tempted to sever it, but he didn't for two reasons. One, the link had been forged by magic and he didn't know enough about it to feel safe doing so. He didn't want to accidentally strip both of their minds of the ability to think. And two, without the link, Xander would have no way to communicate at all. He just couldn't bring himself to do that to the guy.

That didn't help him with the fact that he had a psi-link in his head. His own telepathy was so minor as to be almost non-existent. He had just enough talent to maintain the link and hold up psi-shields. He didn't think he'd even be able to establish a link on his own. His empathy was stronger, but he had little to no control. It was either on, or off. When it was on, he could feel the emotions of others and when it was off, he couldn't. What little control he had came across as 'charm'. The only thing he could do with that was induce a mild mix of lust, affection and tractability in his target. It was not easy to do and it wasn't in any way predictable.

With the link stable, it didn't really affect his control or ability too much. That wasn't the problem. What made a psi-link so difficult for Gambit were the memories. It was with a psi-link that the Antiquary had fed from his collection of children, soaking up their energy and lifeforce to fuel his own. None of that was Xander's fault, however, nor was it his fault that Gambit's shields grated against the link.

Somehow, he'd just have to learn to live with it or he'd have to find a way to transfer the link to another person.

**

* * *

**

7 – Minor Crisis

=Gambit!=

"Heh?" Gambit's head jerked up straight, the bubbling pot of seafood gumbo on the stove in front of him forgotten. "Xander?"

=Gambit! Help!=

Methos looked up from the living room where he was unpacking the clothes and supplies he had just bought at the store for his mutant houseguest. "What's up?"

"Don' know, mon ami. Xander be calling fo' help." Gambit set down the spoon and tilted his head slightly, his glowing red eyes going unfocused. "*Where are y', homme?*"

=Outside. In the big oak tree.=

Gambit blinked once and turned to Methos. "Y' got an oak tree around here?"

Methos stared at him for a brief moment and then dropped what he was holding and dashed through a doorway into his bedroom. Gambit followed hurriedly. The two men rushed to the window. Methos flung it open and they both stuck their heads out to look at the big oak tree growing in the small patch of yard behind the condo.

About halfway up, hidden deep in the leaf covered branches was a giant black cat. All four sets of Xander's claws were extended and gripping the rough branch tightly. His tail whipped back and forth in agitation and whining mewling noises came from deep in his chest even as he turned his head to look over at them with one panic stricken eye.

=I climbed up here after a bird, and now I don't know how to get back down!=

Gambit felt a wash of embarrassment flow over the psi-link and smirked even as relief flooded through him. Between the three of them, he'd been expecting evil immortals, sentinel robots or even the odd demon or two. This was much more funny than deadly.

"De silly furball done tree'd hisself an' now he can' figure out how t' get back down."

Methos and Gambit looked at each other and smirked. Then one of them snorted. An eye twitched, followed by a lip. Before they knew it, both of them were hanging out the window and laughing like fools.

=Not funny. Oh, so very not funny. Just get me down from here!=

Methos got himself under control first, and grinning like a loon, elbowed Gambit and nodded towards Xander. "So…just how do we get a two-hundred pound cat out of a tree. I don't think the fire department does this sort of thing."

Grinning himself, Gambit just shrugged. "No idea, homme. Should be interestin' though."

**

* * *

**

8 – Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod

Gambit cracked open the shell of another crawdad and dug out the spicy meat in one easy movement born of practice and enhanced hand-eye-coordination. Xander lay stretched out on the couch next to him, drooling like a sieve and purring like a V-8 engine. He shoveled half of it into his own mouth and then handed off the rest to the man-turned-cat. The purring kicked up a notch even as telepathic babble singing his praises as a cook swirled through his mind.

His sense of the kinetic picked up broad sweeps of movement outside the door seconds before he heard the key turning in the lock and then the door opening. Footsteps shuffled about in the hallway. Xander looked up and over, but didn't seem worried or upset and nothing was ringing any alarm bells in his own mind, so he simply reached for another crawdad off of the plate and cracked it open.

"Methos, that y', homme?" he called out. "Come on in here an' watch de Saint's game wit' us. Bring some beer wit' y', heh?"

=Ooo, and more of the spicy demon lobsters too!=

Gambit snorted a laugh. "And more of de crawdads! Xander eats like de Wolverine."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." The voice was muffled, but definitely Methos'. Gambit listened as the footsteps swung through the kitchen. The refrigerator door was opened and shut, the pots and pans on the stovetop were rattled a bit and then Methos appeared in the doorway to the living room.

Behind him came a man wearing a trench coat and with his long dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. Gambit turned to look up at them and he watched as the stranger's jaw dropped and he stumbled to a halt. Methos kept coming, passed a few beers over and set down another plate of steaming crawdads.

"Holy shit Methos!" The man pointed at Gambit and Xander, "You really do have a mutant Cajun and a giant black cat staying in your house!"

**

* * *

**

9 – Sparring

Gambit wasn't sure if this was a good idea or not, but by this point he didn't really care. After years of Cyclops' crazy scheduling of Danger Room sessions on practically a daily basis, uncountable hours of gymnastics training, endless repetitions in the weight room and the occasional sparring session with Wolverine, Gambit needed to workout regularly just to feel normal. It had been two weeks since he'd fallen through the portal and into this reality. Two weeks. If he didn't beat up someone soon, he was gonna lose it.

He stood in the middle of a fairly large gym in his full body armor, his telescopic bo staff swirling around him in a deadly gleaming arc of silver. In front of him, dressed in loose cotton drawstring pants, MacLeod twisted around a smooth wooden quarterstaff, his movements elegant and flowing.

"Y' sure 'bout this, homme?" He tilted his head and grinned. "Gambit not gonna hold back if we spar. He won't charge anythin', promised that already, me. That still leaves a whole lotta ragin' Cajun t' cut loose on y'."

MacLeod smirked. "I'm sure. You don't blow me to smithereens, and I won't cut off your head. Anything else goes. I'm up for it."

Gambit's grin morphed into a full blown blinding smile. Then he leapt into the air, twisted around four-hundred and fifty degrees before landing silently behind the immortal and hit him with the bo staff twice before leaping away into the air again.

For ten minutes the gym resounded with a series of clacks, clicks, bangs and thumps from the two staffs bashing against each other. This was interspersed with Gambit jumping, flipping, diving, rolling and leaping. He didn't even bother pretending to stay on the mats. He was up and down off the benches, flipping over weight equipment, running halfway up the walls to somersault in midair over MacLeod's head. He twisted, he dipped, he lunged. His sparring style was half savate fighting and half acrobatics. And through it all the immortal warrior chased him from one side of the gym to the other and back again.

Finally, Duncan had had enough.

"HOLD!"

With infinite grace, Gambit landed silently on his feet, his bo staff swinging softly to a halt, his trench coat and hair fluttering around him. The large face splitting grin he wore slowly shifting to an expression of confusion and concern.

"Eh? S'wrong, mon ami?"

MacLeod graced him with a frustrated glare. "Do you always jump around like a demented kangaroo on crack when you fight?"

Off in the corner, Xander started up that half purring growl that was his laugh even as Methos cackled with glee.

**

* * *

**

10 – Joe and Amanda

Gambit was just coming out of the bathroom on MacLeod's barge when he heard a man's smokey voice rumble out, "Oh, man. That's got to be the most scarred up, horse-faced cat I have ever seen in my life."

=Hey!= The force of Xander's shouted telepathic voice made him sway on his feet. =Watch who you're calling ugly you, you, you…Mr. Meany-pants, you!=

Mr. Meany-pants? Gambit was really going to have to work with Xander on his cursing and swearing skills because that effort was just sad.

He walked through the short hallway into the main room on the barge in time to see Methos and MacLeod smirking at an older man with graying hair and a cane. A young woman with short black hair frowned at all three of them and lightly smacked the older man on the arm, "Joe!"

Then, she turned to face an indignant Xander. With a smile, she leaned forward to give him an excellent view of her lovely cleavage, reached out with both hands to rub his cheeks and scratch his ears even as she babbled baby talk at him about how he was a pretty cat. Xander, not being a fool or dead, leaned into her touch and purred loudly, his one eye glazing over with pleasure and happiness.

=Hear that Remy? I'm a pretty cat. Amanda said so.=

"Y' ain't a pretty cat, homme. Y' a fur sheddin', dog chasin', food stealin', tree climbin', poop machine."

Methos and MacLeod snorted in amusement, even as the strange man and woman looked at him as if he was insane. Gambit was getting used to that look, so he ignored it.

=Am not!=

"Y' are too! An' Gambit should know. It's his clothes y' shed on, his food y' steal, and him that has t' carry y' heavy butt down outta de trees. An' if one more neighbor lady come t' yell at Gambit 'cause y' chased their dog down de street an' into a bout of hysterics, he gonna hide y' cat-nip."

That sparked a burst of laughter out of Methos.

"Xander here made himself the hero of all the cats that live near the condo by chasing the big brown German Shepard that lives down the street. He's a mean and vicious dog that's spent years terrorizing everyone's pets, but apparently he doesn't enjoy being chased by a huge two-hundred-plus pound cat."

Gambit smirked. "Not surprising really. Xander be twice as big as de dog, an' almost as smart."

=Hey! I'm plenty smart!=

And since Xander had somehow wound up leaning against Amanda's body with his big furry head pillowed on her breasts while she scratched under his chin with one hand and ran the other down the length of his body in smooth strokes, Gambit had to agree.

The man, Joe, just looked resigned and confused. "Do I even want to know how you two idiots managed to smuggle a black panther into downtown Paris?"

Both Methos and MacLeod pivoted and pointed at Gambit, twin cries of, "He did it!" echoing off the ceiling.


	2. GMX II

_**The Adventures of Gambit, Methos and a cursed one-eyed cat named Xander**_

Genre: crossover, series of related ficlets  
Characters: Gambit (X-Men), Methos (Highlander) and Xander (Buffy)  
Rating: R (to be safe - each ficlet varies)  
Disclaimer: I don't own any character from any of the various fandoms. I'm not making $ from this.  
Summary: Gambit's life takes a turn for the surreal. Then stuff happens.

* * *

**11 – The Date**

Gambit unscrewed the grill, lifted it up in one smooth silent motion and then slid it over to rest against the side of the large industrial duct he was crawling through. He peered down into the open space below, his glowing eyes easily seeing the lasers which crisscrossed the room around the various exhibits. He noted camera positions and pressure plates, wiring along glass cabinets and all manner of fun things.

When he spoke, his voice was little more than a subtle whisper but the mic at his throat picked it up easily and transmitted it to his partner's ears. "Gambit gonna have t' lower you down, chere. They got lots of lovely lasers humming down there."

There was a brief startled pause and then Amanda's voice whispered to him from his own ear piece. "Wait…you can see the lasers with those eyes of yours?"

"Oui, chere. Gambit can see them just fine. Might want t' open y' pack and pull out de spray an' harness. I'm gonna slip over t' de other side of de openin' and turn around. It be a better position t' lower y' from."

It didn't take long for Gambit to twist his agile body into the position that he wanted or for Amanda to wiggle into her harness and hook up the long thin line that he would use to lower her down to the floor past the lasers with. Once that was done, she leaned over the opening and reached down with one hand to spray some scentless aerosol into the room below. He heard her slight gasp as the aerosol showed her the laser grid.

His empathy picked up her excitement and the minor undercurrent of fear that wove through it, which only served to elevate his own. He hadn't had this much fun in ages. He was also trying to ignore the waves of bored resentment that were washing over him from Xander.

He sorta felt bad about that. Before he'd been cursed, Xander had on occasion stolen things that the group he worked with had needed. Apparently, mystical black ops didn't pay well and often required specialized and expensive equipment. His friends and teammates had learned not to ask where or how Xander got things when he walked in with the stuff they needed and Xander had learned not to tell.

Xander wasn't anywhere near the skill level of either himself or Amanda, but if he hadn't been cursed into the body of a large cat Gambit would have been willing to apprentice him. As it was, he could only ride along in Gambit's mind via the psi-link and try not to be a distraction at the wrong time.

"Okay," Amanda's whisper soft voice pulled his attention back to the here and now as she grinned at him. "I'm ready to be lowered down."

Gambit grinned back and grabbed hold of the line attached to her harness. He braced himself to catch her weight as she slid smoothly out of the duct. He easily lowered her slowly and steadily down even as she twisted her body slightly to avoid the closest laser. As soon as she had her feet on the ground in front of the case she was interested in, Gambit quickly and calmly attached her line to the duct.

Then, before she could protest, he slid out of the duct and tumbled through the air. Twisting silently to avoid the lasers, he hit the ground in a one-handed handstand, sprung back up into the air to flip backwards twice, landed on one foot with his other leg pulled up tight to his chest, then flipped up into the air on an angle to land in front of a second case on the far side of the room.

Gambit grinned cheekily across the laser grid, random pressure plates and cameras to see Amanda gapping at him open mouthed even as ripples of shock radiated from her.

"Do you realize how close you just came to setting off an alarm!" came across the mic and hissed into Gambit's ear.

"Oui, chere," he smirked back and began pointing. "Gambit was two inches from that laser, five inches from that pressure plate, half inch from that laser, three inches from…"

"Fine!" Amanda's voice cut him off. "I get it; just…warn me next time. I nearly peed my pants."

Gambit chuckled. "Oh, but where de fun in that, mon ami?"

Amanda glared at him before turning to break the security on the case in front of her, but Gambit could feel that her surprise was giving way to amusement and respect, not anger. Grinning like a fool, he turned around and began to bypass the security on the case in front of him, his prize gleaming in the low level lighting.

* * *

**12 – Ruminations**

They were at Amanda's flat, and carefully repacking all of their equipment away even as they laughed and smiled and enjoyed the feeling of a pinch that was pulled off perfectly. It had been a long time since Gambit had had a partner. The last had been a de-aged Storm back when he had thought she really was the child she appeared to be.

He hadn't realized how much he missed sharing it with someone. The X-Men had never approved of his thieving, even when they had benefited from the information he acquired for them. And in a way, this was even better because Amanda was a professional, easily on the level of a Master trained by the Guild. He had really missed working with a professional.

Jake Gavin and Victor Creed didn't count. They were both espionage specialists with Jake being more suited to high society politics and Victor falling into the black ops category with a second specialty in assassination. Amanda was, like himself, a thief at heart. Like Victor, Gambit had a second specialty; battlefield combat. And he could also do a fairly good job at espionage and assassination if forced to. However, when push came to shove and he had to choose one word to describe himself it always had been and always would be: thief.

His time with the Marauders and the X-Men didn't change that. The Marauders had wanted him to be a killer. He could kill. He had done so in the past and would most likely do so in the future, but he wasn't a killer. He took no joy or pride in killing. The X-Men wanted him to be a soldier and a freedom fighter. He had tried to be that and failed. He wasn't sure if he believed the Professor's dream of mutant equality was even possible, but he wished it were. And he had done what he'd been told even when he didn't agree with their methods.

Looking back, he hadn't really fit in with either group well.

The Marauders had used his thieving abilities ruthlessly, but he had never agreed with or believed in Sinister's view of the world nor his goals to shape it. The wholesale slaughter that occasionally cropped up in the life of a Marauder was also a problem. He'd been to several with them and survived unscathed up until the one time his psi-shields had crashed down around him under the assault of overwhelming pain and fear. He still wasn't fully recovered from the events that happened in the Morlock Tunnels, even if it hadn't been one of the bloodier Marauder missions.

With the X-Men he had found a group of people that worked hard to do good and make the world a better place. He had really liked their goals and ideals, even if he didn't really believe that they were possible. From them, he had learned altruism and hope, compassion and self-sacrifice. He honestly believed that he was now a better person for having known them.

It was just sad and unfortunate that they had never really trusted him or let him all the way into their lives. They had hated that he was a thief and had wanted him to lock that part of himself away. He had tried. It hadn't always worked, but he had tried. And he was sure that his thieving past would have been forgiven and his few lapses would have been overlooked if it weren't for one thing. He was a ghost to the telepaths and Charles Xavier would never trust anyone he couldn't read like an open book. Gambit was sure that he could steal the crown-jewels and drop them in the middle of the War Room table without censor if only the 'paths could walk through his mind at their leisure.

Gambit shifted slightly and watched as Amanda carefully wrapped up their prizes so that she could transport them to her fence. Her movements were calm and precise despite her large smile and the waves of cheer and satisfaction rolling from her mind to crash upon his psi-shields.

Yeah, it was good to work with a professional. Even better, with the exception of MacLeod who would hopefully never know, he wouldn't be lectured by anyone trying to make him feel guilty over this little bit of fun. Methos wouldn't care either way as long as Gambit didn't track trouble right to his front door and Xander was simply miffed that he couldn't come and help.

Guilt free theft. God, it'd been far too long.

* * *

**13 – Nightmares**

Gambit was in a cemetery fighting for his life against three large super strong vampires. He kept tripping and falling, his grace deserting him as pain shot up from his knee and into his hip. He tried to charge the piece of wood he held but the kinetic potential refused to answer his call, refused to glow with explosive power.

He was tackled to the ground, held in place by inhumanly strong arms even as cold fetid breath washed over his face. Teeth scraped lightly against his throat and fear slammed into him in icy waves, robbing him of thought.

Then the monster was gone, yanked from his body to reveal a small blonde teen that glared at him in exasperation. "Xander! How can you keep me safe and alive if you can't even defend yourself?"

And then Gambit knew this wasn't his nightmare, it was a nightmare of the large black cat sleeping on Methos' couch. That was why his charge didn't work and why his fighting skills weren't available to him. He was also fairly sure that the events this dream was about didn't happen this way. Xander's subconscious was changing it, making it worse by playing up Xander's fears. Specifically, his fear of not being strong enough, fast enough or tough enough to protect those he loved.

Gambit could understand that. And thinking of Bella, Rouge and Storm, he knew that just because those you love were capable of protecting themselves didn't stop a man from wanting to shelter them from harm.

Suddenly, the dream world shifted and Gambit found himself fighting through a mob of crazy humans whose minds had been shattered by an evil so great that it could end the world. He didn't want to hurt the crazy people, they were innocent victims in this mess, but he had to get through. He had to help her, stop her from doing the one thing he feared she would. He had to get past these people.

A scream ripped through the night and Gambit looked up to see her. Oh god no, oh god please no. She was falling, her blonde hair streaming behind her like a banner as she leapt from the swaying tower to plunge through the swirling magics that had been gathered to shred the world apart. She fell and he could do nothing to save her.

Shadows shifted, light glinted off of moving surfaces and he saw her face down in the water. With a cry of horror he ran to her side and turned her over, dragging her out of the pool that killed her. Cold skin, no heartbeat. Dead. His mind swirling with grief and fear and anger, he desperately tried to remember how to do CPR.

He leaned down and breathed into her mouth for her. He pressed his hands on her chest and pushed, forcing her heart to beat. Over and over, he breathed and he pushed, begging with his entire heart and soul for her to just live. Live!

Then she coughed and sputtered water, drawing in breath and life and he couldn't stop the rush of happiness and relief that engulfed him, making him giddy. Then she turned away from him and embraced the demon that had killed her and professed her love of the beast. He shattered inside and turned to watch his entire world slide down a growing crater into the Hellmouth.

She stood there, dusty and exhausted with a gleaming sliver scythe over her shoulder. "Anya and your parents are back there." She gestured over her shoulder to the ever expanding sinkhole into hell and shrugged unconcerned. "I'd do something about it, but I'm too wrapped up in caring about Spike. He's the real hero, you know."

And the shattered pieces inside began to slice him apart. He wanted to die.

With a gasp Gambit was catapulted wide awake. He wasn't sure if it was him who broke them out of the nightmare or if it was Xander, but he could feel his friend was now awake as well. Physic whimpers and howls of pain flooded his mind over the psi-link.

"*Xander…come in here wit' Remy, mon chat noir.*"

=…..=

"*Come on, y' need me right now…and after that I don't want t' be in here alone either."

Gambit heard the springs on the couch complain as the large black cat climbed down. Then the door to the guest room in Methos' condo was pushed open and a large black furry head peeked through. Offering up a shaky smile, Gambit lifted the corner of the blankets up and waited. After a long pause, Xander padded over and climbed onto the bed. Gambit wrapped the blanket around them both and then pulled Xander's heavy body closer so that his fur covered back pressed against his own chest. He held on tightly while the big cat shook and trembled silently, the psi-link between them filled with grief, despair and horror.

Slowly, Xander cried himself out and slid into an exhausted sleep and still Gambit held him, desperately trying to soothe the pain still there under the surface.

* * *

**14 – Interlude**

It had been Xander's idea. Apparently, he was no stranger to researching prophecies, mystical rituals and planning for apocalyptic events. This background wasn't one to encourage a person to sit back with a sigh and just accept whatever hand fate dealt him. To that end, he wanted to research a way to open a portal back to either his or Gambit's home dimension. Or even a way to break the curse on him and return him to his human form. For that, they needed rare and expensive books.

Methos and Xander had been able to track down a few that the one-eyed cat wanted, but they were either too expensive or not available for sale. That's where Gambit and Amanda came in. Gambit wasn't going to let his chance to get home slide by because of some snooty collector or because the book was locked up in a museum or library.

So, he sat on a comfortable couch next to Amanda, building specs and security manuals spread out around them as they planned their next heist. In the back of his mind he could feel short bursts of frustration interspersed with short bursts of triumph along with a steady murmur of whispered words in some ancient and dead language as Xander and Methos worked on translating a few of the books they had already acquired.

Gambit watched the light shimmer over Amanda's dark hair as she bent her head to check something in a manual against the specs. She was a beautiful woman; smart, talented, brave and cunning too. He couldn't help the smile that slid across his lips as he looked at her.

She turned away from her book and gazed up at him, her eyes sparkling with good cheer and a curious look on her face, "What?"

He considered her question briefly and realized that he was more than just content, he was happy. His relationship with Methos was growing into something that resembled the friendly wariness tinged with respect that he had shared with both Grey Crow and Wolverine. MacLeod was the small group of immortals' conscience and lynch-pin, much like a more laid-back and easy going Cyclops. Joe was steady and quiet like his brother Henri had been, with a bit of Xavier's all knowing wisdom without the arrogance. Xander…well, he was like a big furry combination of Jake and Jubilee with just a touch of Sabertooth for good measure. And Amanda, well, she reminded him of two of his favorite women; Stormy and Bella. Beautiful, ruthless, joyful and deadly.

Despite working so hard to leave this world, he liked these people and was happy here. If they never found a way home, he would be sad being the only mutant and Xander would adjust to being trapped as a cat, but they would be able to build a good life here and be surrounded by good friends. And they would be happy.

Amanda's eyebrow arched in silent question as she grinned at him. He didn't even think about it, he simply leaned forward and kissed her. It was a soft brushing of lips against lips, questioning, asking for permission but not pushing. A brief pause and then Amanda was kissing him back.

With a sigh of relief and desire, Gambit reached out and pulled her closer even as he deepened the kiss into something…more.

* * *

**15 – Cold Reception**

Gambit walked through the front door of Methos' condo whistling cheerfully, his long trench coat slung over one shoulder and his sunglasses sliding down low on his nose. He stopped in the kitchen to pour himself a mug of coffee and then wandered into the living room to see Methos reading through an old dusty book and Xander standing up and giving a large lazy stretch.

"Good Morning, mes amis."

Gambit beamed at them, good cheer radiating from every pore. Methos smirked at him, one eyebrow raised in mild confusion and amusement.

"Morning?" the immortal made a show of checking his watch and snorted lightly. "If you say so."

Gambit's smile grew even larger. So he and Amanda had woken up at the crack of noon, what of it. They had had a long and hard night. His smile shifted into a smirk of satisfaction. He hoped they had many more just like that. The femme was very flexible, after all.

Xander just gave him a long flat stare, and then he deliberately turned away to face his back to Gambit, sat down and stared at the wall. Banked anger and resentment shivered along their psi-link. He was the very image of a pissed off and indignant cat.

Gambit's smile melted into a look of hurt confusion. "Xander?"

Irritation down the psi-link was his only answer. He turned his head to Methos and gestured in confusion at the man-turned-cat.

"Pourquoi?"

Methos sighed and shrugged.

"I have no idea what's gotten under his fur. All I know is that last night around ten-ish he suddenly dashed into the guest bedroom and began growling and snarling and pacing in circles." Another eloquent shrug. "He calmed down around one-thirty, but I can't talk to him like you can so I don't know what set him off."

Confusion and hurt swirled through him for a long moment and then it hit him like a brick to the eyes. Xander had flipped out between ten o'clock last night until around one-thirty. He'd been with Amanda. Naked and in her bed, both of them enjoying some truly athletic and sweaty sex.

He hadn't even given a thought to Xander. A man cursed to be transformed into a big cat and then mentally linked to Gambit's brain. The poor guy had been brought along for the ride while trapped in an animal's body in a small apartment with Methos, a man he couldn't even explain his problem to.

"*Xander…mon ami. Je suis desole. Gambit didn't mean t' hurt you. You have t' know that I'd never…*"

Resentment still shivered along the link, but Xander's shoulders dipped and his large furry head swung around to look mournfully at Gambit. With a sigh, Gambit tossed his coat over a chair and set down his coffee. He crossed the room and knelt down in front of the large cat. Reaching out with both hands to cup those furry cheeks he rested his forehead against Xander's.

"*I'm sorry. I…I didn't think.*"

Xander leaned into his touch and sighed. =Not really your fault. It's just hard being a cat. I usually try not to think too much about everything I've lost, but…=

Gambit shifted to sit down on the floor next to Xander and the big cat flopped against him with a sad sigh, his weight pressing up close to Gambit's side. He rubbed one hand against his friend's big furry ear and the other ran down his side in soothing lines.

=It's funny, as much as I hate the idea of giving up sex, I think I hate the idea of loosing the hope of ever having a family even more.=

Gambit's heart broke for his friend. Part of him wanted to tell him not to give up hope, but he knew better than that. If they never found a way to change Xander back into a human it was very likely that he'd never have sex again despite his human brain. He only had to think back to the mutants he knew that were less than human looking; Beast, Nightcrawler, Wolfsbane and Prism to name a few. Beast was the only one to ever have a relationship and Gambit was almost certain that it hadn't been a very physical one. And Trish had left Hank because of his less than human looks, no matter what lies she told.

"*Je suis desole, Xander. You be Gambit's family now, heh? Not de same, I know, mais it's true anyway.*"

=Brothers?=

A spike of pain in his heart for his long dead brother Henri, he nodded and hugged Xander tightly to him.

"*Brothers.*"

* * *

**16 – The Game**

"There can be only one!"

Anger and fear rushed through Gambit as he watched the strange man raise his sword and glare at Methos. Indignant and conflicted, he had never stood back and watched one of his friends face danger when he could help. Well, except when Victor and Logan went at it, but it would be insane to try and get between those two when they left their sanity and their humanity at the door.

Gambit clenched the glowing card in his hand and wondered if he could charge it enough to blow the man's head clean off of his shoulders. He watched, silently and helplessly as the man and Methos both shifted slightly, a precursor and preparation to violence.

A howl of rage broke the stillness and than a piece of the black shadows leapt free and came to life in the form of a one-eyed two-hundred and twenty pound panther in full battle mode. Xander slammed into the back of the stranger, knocking him flat on his face against the concrete ground. With a loud echoing growl, he snarled and bit at the man's head even as his claws raked at the man's body.

Smirking, Gambit stepped out of the shadows after him. "Xander…come." With a snort, the big cat stepped down off of the screaming and crying immortal and sauntered over to stand next to the mutant thief.

Bending down, Gambit picked up the man's fallen sword and peered at him over his sunglasses with his burning and glowing eyes. He knew that his eyes seriously freaked people out and made him look demonic, especially when they flared with power.

"De homme be mine!"

The slowly healing immortal groaned in pain and confusion even as he looked up into Gambit's burning red eyes. He stood up and held out the man's sword. A simple flex of his power and the sword was glowing bright pink with a mild charge. The man hissed in fear and surprise. Frowning, Gambit flung the sword away and watched it explode in a shower of heat, light and flame. He turned back to the kneeling immortal and glared at him over his sunglasses.

"Y' don't have de power or de skills t' take what belong t' Le Diable Blanc, pup." Gambit pointed at Methos. "That one belongs t' me. Y' challenge me for him again an' I'll send y' t' de deepest pit of hell wit' a smile on my face."

Gambit pushed his sunglasses back up tighter to his face with one hand even as he reached down and ruffled Xander's fur with the other.

"Good, boy."

Xander purred loudly in the echoing warehouse and followed Gambit as he turned and slinked back into the shadows. Slowly, with a frown marred by amused confusion, Methos followed them both. It didn't take long for all three of them to be far away from the burning warehouse or the other immortal.

"You know," Methos drawled. "It isn't going to do my reputation any good once it gets around that I sold my Quickening to the Devil."

Gambit just laughed.

* * *

**17 – Research Party**

Gambit dutifully wrote down in English everything that Xander told him to as the big cat patiently read through the ancient book laid out on the floor before him. All of them had been highly impressed that the young man-turned-cat could translate Latin into English in his head just by reading it, especially as it was in essence a dead language. Well, to be precise, everyone had been impressed except for Xander who stubbornly insisted that his researching skills weren't very good.

Gambit wasn't sure who Xander was comparing himself with to come to that conclusion but they must have been a genius on the level of the Beast. Even the old man was impressed, and he had been a professional scholar for centuries.

Still, with MacLeod translating the more modern languages, particularly those of Asian and Middle-Eastern leanings, and Xander and Gambit taking Latin and Sumerian while leaving everything else to the old man, they were doing a pretty good job of picking out all of the important and pertinent information.

"As fascinating as all of this…" Methos make a face that was part disgust and part confusion as he gestured at all of the scattered books, notes and diagrams, "esoteric crap is, I don't think we're going to find exactly what we're looking for."

Everyone sorta sighed and looked over at him, various expressions of frustration and agreement stamped over all of them.

"What do you mean? We can't give up now." MacLeod was clinging desperately to his optimism. It was as frustrating as it was comforting.

Gambit frowned and leaned against Xander's furry shoulder for comfort. He wasn't sure if it was to comfort himself or the cat and didn't bother trying to analyze it either way. He actually agreed with Methos, but he didn't know enough about magic to feel right saying so.

Methos sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, obviously gathering his thoughts. Finally he let go, shook his head and gestured at Gambit and Xander.

"I don't think that the magic in our world is anywhere near as advanced as either of your worlds. Xander, yours is obviously the most advanced mystically speaking. And while portals and the theories behind dimensional travel might be well known and researched there, it's little more than a flight of fancy for sci-fi writers here."

Xander looked away for a moment before nodding his head and leaning back against Gambit.

=I agree.=

"Xander agrees wit' y'." Gambit turned from Methos to the big cat. "*So…what does that mean fo' us? What do we do next?*"

=Um…I think that I might have to try and put together a spell. I'm not a witch, so we'd need to find someone else to cast it, but I've been the anchor on a lot of spell work and I've worked closely with the most powerful witch of the last thousand years for over a decade. I understand magic even if I can't cast it.=

"Xander says that he can make a spell t' open de portal, but he can't cast it since he's not a witch."

Everyone blinked and looked at Xander and Gambit. It was MacLeod, his face twisted up in confusion that asked the question.

"How can you make a spell if you're not a witch? That doesn't make any sense."

=I'm an anchor. Mystically speaking that's the opposite of a witch. A witch has magic inside them; it's in their blood, their bones, and their very soul. An anchor is a magic null, but they can pull magic into themselves from outside and channel it through their bodies, purifying it. Turning it from wild raw magic into something that a witch can use if focused properly.=

"Eh…not sure Gambit understands this, but…Xander say he be an anchor, de magical opposite of a witch. A witch has magic inside them, but an anchor can channel natural magic from de world."

Xander nodded his big furry head.

=Right. The thing is; anchors aren't meant to hold magic inside them. We can take magic in, but we have to push it back out again. Sorta like breathing. You breathe in, but you also breathe out again. A witch holds magic inside them. If they cast a spell, it uses their own reserves, like donating blood. Casting drains them and it takes a while to fill back up again. That's probably why my world is so magically advanced. We have witches and anchors and we know how to use them both.=

"So, what does that mean for us?" Xander and Gambit both looked over at Methos, their heads both tipped to the same angle to the right.

=Well, I have worked with enough powerful witches doing lots of major castings to know all the rules and all the frameworks. I can put something together and help boost the power levels so the witch, or witches, don't burn themselves out. But I'd prefer to have competent help from someone on this world to look over everything to make sure I didn't leave anything out or something.=

"Xander says that he's worked with lots of witches an' can put together de portal spell. But he wants a witch from this world; t' not only cast it, but t' review his work t' make sure it's right."

MacLeod was nodding, a thoughtful look on his face, "Well, we could always ask…"

"NO!" Methos' shout cut him off.

"…Cassandra."

* * *

**18 – Temper-tantrum**

Gambit and Xander didn't really pay too much attention when Methos answered the ringing phone.

Instead, Gambit made sure the three steaks were pulled out of the marinade and placed carefully on the broiling pan while Xander continued to babble in his head. The steak covered broiling pan went into the oven even as he listened to a rather humorous story about a long ago Thanksgiving that had involved a turkey-obsessed Slayer, a tied up chipped vampire, hostile Chumash Vengeance Spirits that cursed people with syphilis and a red-haired witch that had suddenly become anti-pilgrim and proceeded to rain on everyone's parade.

It was Gambit who noticed first. Rage, fear and a sense of betrayal began to radiate from the immortal's mind. It was light at first, but then the emotions suddenly blazed forth, filling the small condo. Xander's attention was redirected to Methos when Gambit's head snapped around and he stared in concern at the old man.

"I can't believe you did that Mac. Why? Why her!"

Methos' voice was hissed in irritation, but there was a strong undercurrent of genuine hurt. Gambit and Xander watched as the normally pale immortal's face drained of color even further and his eyes closed in pain. Methos' tipped his head back and just listened to MacLeod's explanation silently.

Finally, with a soft sigh, "You know Mac, this not going to end well and it will be all your fault for involving Cassandra despite my wishes." Methos opened his eyes and growled out, "It's kinda like if I had called up the Kurgan and informed him that Connor needed help for two of his friends and could he possibly provide it."

MacLeod must have said something then, because the rage pouring from Methos nearly tripled and Gambit swayed on his feet from the physic bombardment against his psi-shields.

Gambit and Xander both peeked around the corner of the kitchen into the living room in time to hear Methos shout, "Just because a woman's willing to spread her legs for you it doesn't make her trustworthy!" Then the old man stabbed a finger at the buttons on the phone to hang it up. He stared at it a moment before growling out a wordless shout, spinning and throwing the phone to shatter against the far wall.

That's when Methos lost control.

Gambit and Xander had, of course, listened attentively when the immortals had all tried to explain just what a Quickening was and how they absorbed it. They had also managed to wrangle some vague timeline of Methos' life out of him and had been told right away that he was the oldest.

Intellectual knowledge is all well and good, but it's no substitute for understanding with your guts. Making a truth a part of your blood and bones, as Xander would say. They knew Methos was an immortal, that he was really old and healed mortal wounds almost instantly. Watching him loose control allowed them to suddenly understand.

The thin veneer of civilization called Adam Pierson cracked down the middle and fell away, leaving the strongest and most deadly portion of Methos' psyche blazing in a halo of shimmering blue energy that sizzled in flowing waves along his skin. Death turned to stare at them, anger and rage glowing in his eyes as even the very air around him crackled with static electricity. Windows rattled in their panes, the stereo warbled in and out as interference played havoc with its reception, a chill wind began to swirl through the room, rustling papers and blowing Gambit's hair about.

=Holy Hellmouth…=

"*Bon Dieu.*"

Neither Gambit nor Xander were frightened of their friend. Wary and cautious, concerned and surprised, yes, but not frightened. They had both seen powerful and deadly warriors' loose control of their temper before.

=Ya know, both him and Mac have talked about the 'power of the Quickening', but I never thought…=

"*Oui. Gambit neither, heh?*"

They watched wide-eyed as slowly and painfully, Methos clamped down on his power, pulling it back in under his skin little by little. The winds died down and the air lost that edge of crackling energy. Eventually, the pain and anger battering Gambit's psi-shields lessened and the corona of blazing power dimmed and then finally disappeared. The persona of Death was sheathed once more.

Methos stalked to the closet and flung it open. With a snarl he yanked out his long battered trench coat and threw it around his shoulders. A quick pat along the back to settle his sword in place and then he turned and stomped off down the hall.

"I'm going out!"

Then the front door slammed shut behind him and Gambit and Xander were left wondering what the hell had just happened to set him off like that. Neither one doubted for a single moment that before the night was done, someone's head was going to roll.

Literally.

* * *

**19 – Quickening**

They didn't even discuss it really. It hadn't taken but a moment for Gambit to be ready to leave and then he and Xander stalked silent and unseen behind the raging immortal. He was easy enough to track between Xander's heightened sense of smell and Gambit's ability to feel his anger like an inferno blast of heat lighting up the night.

=I was thinking…you know how they all said they can feel another immortal if they're close enough?=

Gambit blinked. "*Oui.*"

=Do you think that little display of lights and noise that he put on back at the condo would act like a siren's call to other immortals?=

Gambit thought about it. That was a good question. He didn't know how immortals sensed each other, whether it was the feeling of power or a sound or if it was like a psi-link only with the Quickenings.

"*Don' know.*" He nodded his head silently towards the alley they were tracking Methos down in. "*He's huntin' though. Searchin' for somethin' or someone in these dark alleyways.*"

Xander paused for a second. =Yeah.=

They heard it before they actually got close enough to see. The heavy and distinctive clanging sound of sword against sword echoed through the night. A single shared glance and then they were off, loping faster towards the sound of battle.

It was a warehouse, old and abandoned but still smelling of the coal that used to be housed here. Black dust, rust and cobwebs filled the shadows that they hid in. Out in the center of the empty space two men fought, their heavy steel weapons flashing dully in the dim lighting.

=Damn. He's good.=

"*Oui. Very good.*" A pause, then, "*Dangerous too.*"

Wordless agreement came back over the psi-link as they watched their friend fight. It was a deadly dance back and forth across the warehouse, blades swinging, bodies lunging, the sound of metal ringing against metal. The two men were graceful, beautiful and both were deadly serious about winning.

In the end, it was inevitable that Methos would win. He was too strong, too well trained and he had too many years of experience. On top of that he was in a towering rage. With a single swing of a sword the fight was over. His opponent's head went sailing away into the darkness and his body crumpled to the ground. Methos stood over him, panting for breath.

A single human heartbeat was all the rest he was allowed and then the air lightened visibly from the sudden influx of raw power. It sizzled in waves around him, swirling and lifting him up into the air. Then, with no warning, a huge bolt of lightening crashed down through the roof of the warehouse and slammed into Methos' chest.

On instinct, Gambit turned his face up, searching the sky for his beloved Stormy but she wasn't there. That wasn't her lightening slamming into the immortal. It was something else.

He had barely had time to realize and acknowledge that truth when another bolt slammed into the warehouse and hit Methos. Then another and another and another.

Methos screamed in exquisite agony the entire time.

Finally, the power began to ebb and dissipate, the vast majority of it sinking into Methos himself. Slowly, his body was lowered down to the warehouse floor and left him in a heap, gasping desperately for air next to the corpse of his opponent.

=That has got to hurt.= Xander turned his shaggy head away from the bleak scene before them, his one eye gleaming in the low light. =And that happens every time he takes a Quickening?=

"*Don' know.*" Gambit thought about it for a moment. "*Most likely.*"

=Damn.=

"*Oui.*" He gestured and stood up straighter. "*Come on, let's get de homme back t' de condo. Be dinner soon.*"

Xander blinked at him, his emotions swirling so fast that Gambit couldn't track them. Finally, he sighed and nodded.

=Yeah.=

* * *

**20 – Travel Arrangements**

Gambit leaned back into the corner of the couch, rolled his eyes and shuffled his deck of cards once again. He clamped his lips tightly together in an effort to keep from joining in on the argument or from comparing Methos, MacLeod and Joe to a handful of X-Men. Since the two immortals and their watcher didn't know the X-Men, they wouldn't be able to get the full impact of that particular insult anyway.

They were going to Scotland.

That was the idea anyway. That was where MacLeod's witch friend, the one that Methos didn't like or trust lived. So, they were going there so that she could cast the portal spell and send him and Xander on their way home. Well, to one of their homes.

Not that Methos hadn't sent copies of the spell out to several acquaintances of his own for them to check it out, because he did. Each one had agreed that the spell seemed like it would work fine, but sorry, no; they wouldn't be powerful enough to actually cast it. So, they had no choice but to use Cassandra, despite Methos' disquiet about being near her.

So, Scotland.

And everyone had gathered at MacLeod's barge to work out the travel arrangements. He and Xander had claimed the couch. Amanda had sat down between the two of them and now Xander was stretched out on his back, all four paws in the air and his large furry head cradled in her lap as she cooed over him and scratched under his chin. It was actually hard to hear over some of his louder purrs.

Methos, MacLeod and Joe were arguing over the best way to get the entire group, two-hundred pound panther included, out of Paris and over to Scotland. It would be amusing if it hadn't been so incredibly irritating. Gambit changed his mind; instead of a group of X-Men all trying to take charge when Scotty was away, he began to mentally compare them to Domino and Pete Wisdom being forced to follow the lead of the Iceman.

Gambit was fairly certain that if Dom, Wisdom or Drake ever met these guys and found out about his little mental comparison that Dom and Wisdom would try to kill him and that Drake would ensure he'd never enjoy a hot shower or cup of coffee again. Drake's pranks would be annoying, but livable. He was also sure that he could charm Kitty into pouting at Wisdom and thus distract him from vengeance. Cable, on the other hand, would not only cheer Domino on, he'd help by reloading all of her guns for her.

=Remy?=

"*Quoi?*"

Gambit turned to look over at Xander. The big cat gave him a resigned sort of look from his position sprawled across Amanda's lap.

=When they mess up and I end up locked away in the London Zoo, you'll come break me out, right?=

Gambit blinked, then smirked.

"*Of course, mon ami. Gambit won' let y' stay in kitty prison.*"

Amanda's hand shifted and began to rub at the soft fur along Xander's ear. His one eye closed in pleasure and he began to purr loudly again.

=Thanks.=

Gambit chuckled and went back to watching the two immortals argue about Cassandra again.


	3. GMX III

_**The Adventures of Gambit, Methos and a cursed one-eyed cat named Xander  
**_  
Genre: crossover, series of related ficlets  
Characters: Gambit (X-Men), Methos (Highlander) and Xander (Buffy)  
Rating: R (to be safe - each ficlet varies)  
Disclaimer: I don't own any character from any of the various fandoms. I'm not making $ from this.  
Summary: Gambit's life takes a turn for the surreal. Then stuff happens.

* * *

**21 – London Stopover**

Xander hadn't ended up in the London Zoo, but it had been a close thing. The only thing that prevented it from coming to pass was Gambit's liberal use of his unpredictable charm power. After all, reading and sensing emotions was easy, changing them in other people was a whole different thing.

Inciting lust was fairly easy, too much so at times. Encouraging people to be more biddable, trusting and friendly was much more difficult. It was a fine line to walk between tractability and devotion, one he didn't like to cross. What made matters worse, was that his control over this aspect of his empathy was shaky at best.

All of them had managed to escape being detained by customs, but Gambit had left chaos, confusion and an impending fight in his wake. So naturally, MacLeod was not amused and unafraid to explain in excruciating detail why. Gambit didn't appreciate a lecture about morals, ethics and responsibility at the best of times and only Xander's nonstop babble of thanks rolling through his head prevented him from trying to jam his bo staff down the Highlander's throat.

Finally having enough, Gambit stood up, threw on his trench coat and checked to see if his staff and several packs of cards were tucked away in their pockets. Determined that he had what he needed, Gambit stomped off between MacLeod and Methos directly to the door of the Inn.

"And just where do you think you're going?"

Gambit glared at MacLeod over his sunglasses, his mutant eyes burning with fuchsia fire. "Gambit goin' out!"

Xander, bless his furry little heart, hissed loudly at MacLeod and took a wide swing at his leg with claws fully extended and then scampered to catch up. The two of them wandered the streets silently for a quarter of an hour.

=So, where are we going?=

Gambit sighed. "*Don' know. Just…had t' get outta de Inn an' away from de fussy ol' woman pretendin' t' be a Scotsman.*"

Mental laughter tickled his brain.

=Ooookay= A beat. =I know. Let's go hunt rats.=

Silently, Gambit considered it. He knew that Xander regularly went out and hunted rats although he had never gone along with him. The cursed man considered it a poor substitute after a decade and a half of going out to hunt demons on a near nightly basis, but it was the best he could get on this world. Gambit could understand; it was why he was forever bugging MacLeod and Methos to spar. They were both adrenaline junkies.

Still, killing rats was probably a lot better idea then going to a club, getting drunk and then waking up with a hangover and a bad case of crabs. Or worse still, getting arrested for being drunk and disorderly. Calling MacLeod for bail money was not on his list of things to do. Ever.

"*Okay, mon chat. Huntin' rats it is.*"

In no time at all, Xander had led them into a dark alley and had rousted a nest. Rats squeaked and scurried everywhere. Xander, hissing and growling, pounced and bit and snarled. Gambit, his staff spinning, bashed a rather large rat in the head as it tried to flee the large deadly cat that had erupted into its midst. When the excitement finally died down, Xander looked up at him with a large dead rat hanging out of his mouth. He spit it out onto the ground and looked about in satisfaction.

=I got five. You?=

"*Only two. Think maybe Gambit should use his cards instead, heh?*"

Xander tilted his head to the side and considered it. =Maybe. Could be loud though. Don't want the English police called down on us. They might not carry guns, but it would be really annoying.=

Gambit grinned, feeling better already. "*True, that.*"

=Come on, let's go find another nest.=

Chuckling, Gambit bowed low and gestured with one arm for Xander to go first. "*Lead de way, mon ami.*"

With a feline snort, Xander did just that.

**

* * *

**

22 – The Portal

Upon meeting Cassandra, Gambit knew instantly why Methos didn't trust her. She was beautiful, charming, educated, flirty and very evil.

Well, maybe evil wasn't the right word for it. Crazy. Obsessed. Rage filled. Perhaps they were more accurate. And it was all aimed at Methos. When she looked over at their friend, Gambit could actually feel her mind shiver with the force of her psychosis.

Gambit instantly distrusted her and urged that the ritual be put off. He insisted that they could find someone else to do it. MacLeod and Joe both argued that they wouldn't, after all didn't Methos try to find another witch? And if they refused her help now, Cassandra might not be willing to forgive and try later.

Which was a good point.

Xander had watched her with a careful eye as she prepared the site and the potion and he went over the spell with her to make sure she had it all memorized. Every precaution was taken.

Once the ritual was started Gambit had more things to think about than watching the ancient witch, however. He could literally feel the power flowing through Xander during the casting. The large cursed cat was acting as an anchor, and he was pulling raw wild magic from the very earth beneath them and channeling it into the runes so carefully prepared on the ground.

It made the little hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

A spike of wicked glee burst from Cassandra and Gambit tried to focus on her to figure out why, but then a rush of power flowing along his psi-link blanked out his mind and he watched in awe as the runes began to glow.

The very air around them began to shiver and hum with energy, crackling along their skin and making their hair flutter about their heads on currents of visible power. Tension mounted and it felt like the world was going to explode around them and he couldn't breathe, he couldn't see and he was positive he was just one moment away from coming in his pants like a horny teenager.

Then it happened, reality itself spilt apart with a deafening shriek of agony and joy. A swirling vortex of time and space opened up in front of them like some cosmic flower. It was terrifying and unearthly beautiful all at once.

Xander collapsed in exhaustion. Cassandra was still riding the high of her magic, but when the portal closed Gambit knew she would be little better than comatose, dependant on MacLeod to keep her head safe until she recovered. He turned to look at Methos and MacLeod, two very different men, but ones that had quickly and easily befriended a couple of dimensional travelers that were so different from anything they'd ever known. He'd never forget them.

"Thank you. Both of y', for everythin'."

Methos caught his hand in a warrior's handshake even as MacLeod clasped a hand on his shoulder.

"Ye, better go lad. I don't know how long Cassandra can keep the portal open."

With a nod, Gambit let go of them and turned to Xander. The cat was out of it, so he did his best to scoop him up into his arms. It wasn't easy; Xander was huge and very heavy. With one last nod and smile at Cassandra, Gambit shifted the weight of the cat higher up in his arms and then leapt into the portal.

**

* * *

**

23 – Rough Landing

Screaming in both pain and fear, Gambit shot out of the glowing portal like a bullet, a huge black cat clenched tightly to his chest. They came to a sudden bone-rattling stop when they slammed into a stucco wall, only to bounce off it and crash to the floor in a roll of tangled limbs.

Gambit had just gotten himself out from underneath the unconscious panther when another screaming figure came shooting out of the portal to slam into the same wall he had just hit. The figure bounced off of it and then slammed into Gambit, knocking him back to the floor.

"Bloody hell! That fucking witch!"

Gambit groaned at the pain in his creaking bones and flinched at the blinding glare of the portal just as it flared out of existence.

"Methos?"

A growl followed by an elbow in the ribs as the figure climbed up off of him to wobble on unsteady feet. The immortal glared down at him.

"Who else would Cassandra push into the damn portal while cackling with glee?"

Gambit indulged himself in a brief but incredibly foul litany of every curse word he knew. In both English and French.

=If you're done with your devotions,= came a weary, yet snarky voice inside his head, =can someone please tell me if it worked.=

Rolling over, Gambit carefully made his way over to the cat and leaned against his warm furry hide while trying to calm himself by petting the soft fur.

"Oh, de spell worked just fine. No worries there, heh?" He sighed and slumped down further. "Bit of a complication, though."

=Huh?=

Xander lifted his head and turned to look. He stared dumbly at Methos for a long moment and then snarled.

=That, that, that evil witchy bit-ca!=

Gambit blinked. Bit-ca? Where in the world did he get those strange curses? He was really going to have to sit down and teach Xander how to swear one of these days.

Methos sighed and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "It's worse than you think. Cassandra was raving at the end. She mentioned something about searching for the most vile world she could find to open the portal to. I'm fairly sure this isn't either one of your worlds."

=But…why!?=

Gambit nodded and pointed at Xander. "What he said! Why?"

Methos looked away, a pained and regretful look on his face. "This is my punishment. You two are just collateral damage. She agreed just to have the chance to hurt me." He shrugged uncomfortably, "Can't say I don't deserve it, but…she shouldn't have done this to you two."

Gambit tipped his head back and sighed. He stayed there for a long moment thinking and then shook his head. "Non. She's crazy. You tried t' tell Mac that in Paris. I agreed wit' y' ten seconds after meetin' her. She wasn't stable in any way. We never should've trusted her an' I knew that. I shouldn't have let Mac talk me into it."

They were all silent for a moment, considering everything.

=So…now what?=

"*Don' know.*"

**

* * *

**

24 – The Creepiness Factor

Xander's sneeze echoed loud enough to reach Gambit on the second floor. It wasn't the first sneeze and he was fairly sure it wouldn't be the last. This place was extremely dusty and if years of living under the same roof as Wolverine had taught him anything it was that people with supersensitive sniffers didn't like dust.

Well, that and don't take the last beer or get skewered in a painful way. So there you go; life lessons with Logan. The first one works for Xander and the second for Methos. Interesting how that works out.

Still, sniffers and sneezes aside, this place was very creepy or as Xander had put it; wiggins-worthy.

The building they had landed in appeared to be a small school for very young children, perhaps preschoolers. There were lots of toys, books and crayons scattered around low shelves, short tables and tiny chairs made for tiny butts.

No people though.

Actually, no anything. There was no electricity and no running water. Dust lay thick on everything and the air seemed to smell of damp, rot and old blood. Gambit was praying he didn't find any tiny corpses of children laying about in some advanced stage of decay, but he wouldn't be surprised at all. He'd already found three rooms splashed with blood.

He checked the last upstairs room, which was a bathroom. No corpses and once again, no running water. Despair and horror came steadily through his psi-link from Xander and the last time he'd been close enough to Methos to get an empathic read off of him the man had been so bleak and cold. The sad truth was that an abandoned building with a few splashes of blood dashed around was pretty mild and tame compared to memories that each of them carried, but the fact that this was a place meant for children made it ten-times worse.

Still, there was hope. It's possible that the adults were able to get the babies out of here in time and that's why there were no corpses. The blood could be paint…if you squinted hard enough in the right light.

Still…hope.

They were all clinging to it. And silently damning the mad-woman Cassandra for dumping them into some unknown horror.

Slowly, Gambit made his way back downstairs in time to see Methos come up out of the basement. They exchanged glances, both hoping the other found something…or somebody. Silently, Xander padded through a doorway and down the hall towards them, his big furry head hanging low.

=I found the kitchen. There are some unopened cans of juice and several boxes of cereal and cookies that are sealed up. Everything else has gone bad, but at least we won't go hungry.=

Gambit nodded and glanced back up at Methos again. "Xander say he found some juice, cereal an' cookies. No real food though. You?"

Methos shook his head. "I have no clue why there's no power. The fuse box seems to be in order, but it's almost like the power line to the building has been cut. Nothing is coming in at all."

Pinching the bridge of his nose the way he'd seen the immortal do a hundred times he sighed. "No people here either. Just…" he waved his hand towards the stairs and the classrooms beyond, "empty rooms an' abandoned toys."

=Plus, no mice, rats, cats, dogs or birds. Lots of cockroaches though.=

Gambit stared at the cat, his head tilted as he pondered that thought.

"And de creepiness factor keeps risin'."

**

* * *

**

25 – Exploration

Each of the three men had enough experience with both life and adventuring to realize that whatever was wrong at the school was affecting the whole town. It was eerily silent, for one thing and for another, there were no cars, bikes or people moving out and about. And it was a warm sunny day.

With Xander exhausted from being Cassandra's anchor and both Gambit and Methos banged up from the trip through the portal, they decided to try and rest up a bit before heading into the unknown, even if it was creepy in the abandoned daycare center.

Bright and earlier the next morning, the three had some juice and dry cereal before gathering up all of their belongings and heading out into the sunshine. They aimed towards what seemed to be the main part of town and walked along looking around. Gambit found it just as creepy as the school, there were no minds pressing in on his psi-shields except for Methos. A town this size should have held several hundred.

"Think de town abandoned too, not just de school."

Methos was silent, but looked about with a sharp piercing gaze before nodding once sharply in agreement. Xander lifted his head and sniffed the air.

=Smells wrong too. Can't really explain it except as rot and decay, sickly sweet and foul beyond belief. It's weird because underlying all that grossness is…well, people smell.=

Gambit raised an eyebrow and contemplated what it could all mean. He was about to mention it to Methos when the man stopped, looked around for witnesses and then spin-kicked a newspaper caddy. The latch on the little door broke and fell to the sidewalk with a tinkling sound. Grunting, Methos bent down and grabbed up the top newspaper and began to read. Gambit shared a look with Xander that was half amused and half banked concern.

He was about to ask the man why he kicked the box apart just for a newspaper when Methos' face began to drain of all color. His eyes practically flew over the article he was reading for a moment before he whispered a barely heard, "Oh Cass, you incredible bitch. I hope you burn for eternity for this."

Then he turned the pages frantically and continued reading. Gambit and Xander shared another look, this time tinged with sharp worry. Suddenly, Methos swore very loudly, threw the paper onto the ground and then paced around in a tight circle swearing and cursing in a language that Gambit didn't know or even recognize.

His heart beginning to slam in his chest, he reached out and grabbed his own copy of the paper. Even a single glance at the headline was enough to make his knees wobble in reaction.

=What!?=

Gambit glanced at Xander, swallowed and then allowed Xander to hear his thoughts as he read the paper.

"*De headline say 'T-Virus confirmed in London, Royal Family debates Nuclear Strike'.*"

=Nuclear strike? Tell me you're kidding! It's a joke, right? Big ha-ha on the dumb cat, right?!=

"Oh Dieu, I wish…"

=NO!!!= Xander's big paw swiped at his knee, with no claws thankfully. =NEVER say the W-word! There are demons that grant them and it never ever is for the good.=

Gambit nodded, not really understanding despite a vague sense of familiarity. However, he was still too much in shock to track that thought down. Instead, he simply turned the newspaper around so that Xander could see the giant block-letter headline himself. Xander read it, paled under his fur and then dry heaved. Nothing came up, but the wash of nausea swirled horribly across the psi-link. It was actually a lot like standing next to Vertigo with PMS. Grimacing against Xander's and his own upset stomach, Gambit turned the paper around and began to skim the article.

"*Says t' avoid bein' bit or scratched by any infected persons as that'll spread the virus. Also says t' remember it's not enough t' just kill 'em since de virus will reanimate dead flesh once it be advanced enough. Have t' burn de remains t' destroy it all.*"

=Wait!= Xander looked up at him, incredulous. =Did you just say this virus will reanimate the dead?=

Gambit let his eyes skim over the article, looking for all the relevant information.

"*Oui. When de scientists engineer de virus, it mutated. Now it's out of control an' turnin' people into zombies or somethin'.*"

=Stupid sodding military wankers!=

Gambit blinked. Apparently Xander did know how to swear and curse. It just took military engineered demons to bring it out of him.

**

* * *

**

26 – Zombies

The hordes of flesh eating zombies seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once. They shambled and shuffled their way out of dark alleys, abandoned buildings and one even dropped down out of a tree. They were surprisingly quick for all of their gracelessness and they stunk of rot and decay as they moaned and groaned in wordless torment.

The surreal quality of the moment had him nearly convinced this was a bad dream or that he had somehow ended up trapped inside of a 'B' grade horror movie. He fought the urge to giggle insanely.

=Gambit! So not of the funny here.=

Xander's telepathic voice snapped through his mind like a whip and the urge to laugh died a quick death. Gritting his teeth, he pulled out a handful of cards, charged them to a vivid glowing pink and then tossed them into the tightest pack of the undead. The explosion was loud and rotting body parts flew through the air creating an even greater stink. On the other hand, the bright burning curls of intense flame and bio-kinetic energy seemed to terrify the remaining zombies and they went out of their way to avoid it.

Then Methos was there, his big broadsword loping off heads left and right. He was swearing furiously under his breath. With a grin, Gambit flipped into the air over his head and tossed two more handfuls of cards. More explosions and more burning zombies.

It was almost fun in a way. It had been far too long since he had been able to cut loose with his charging power. The middle of Paris in a world without mutants wasn't the best place for random explosions. Popping cards with small charges just wasn't the same as blowing craters in the asphalt. He flipped through the air again and let off some more cards. Direct hits.

"Xander! No!"

Gambit spun around and saw Methos dash between the giant cat and several of the undead.

"Don't try to bite them. This has all been caused by a virus, and you do NOT want to become infected."

Xander froze for a second and then backed away, a whimpery growl in his throat. Frustration mixed with a spike of fear radiated across the psi-link. Not even thinking about it, Gambit flipped through the air once more and landed on the other side of the cat so that Xander was bracketed between himself and Methos. Another handful of cards sizzled through the air.

"We need t' find a place t' hole up. Get some walls at our backs, heh?"

A brief pause, then Xander's mental voice said, =Across the street. The bookstore still has an intact door and a small easy to block off front window.=

Gambit looked. It would do. It would do just fine.

**

* * *

**

27 – Bonfires

Stacks of romance novels, cheep thrillers and calendars were burning merrily in a half-circle outside the bookstore. The fire blocked the front door and the rather small display window and was enough to keep the zombies from getting inside. Gambit was standing between the door and the fire and he would occasionally throw a charged bookmark at the zombies if they gathered in too large a pack.

Xander and Methos were inside trying to figure out the details of what happened on this world, partly because they really did need the information and partly because neither one could stand to see books burning, even tacky and tawdry fiction novels. Xander's mentally muttered, =Please god, don't ever let Giles find out about this. He'd have my hide for a carpet.= had amused Gambit quite a bit.

SSZZZZ – BANG!

Another zombie exploded, rotting gore and limbs flying through the air. The surrealistic feeling of the situation began to get to him again. It was funny; he didn't have this problem when he was surrounded on all sides by evil aliens wanting to take over the earth. Brood, Skrull, Phalanx; they were all a bit creepy, evil and more than a little frightening, but they had never made him question if they weren't possibly a nightmare instead of really there and happening to him.

Not that his world didn't have zombies and vampires; it did. Just not in this number. Or so widely spread around the world. They were rather limited in his world. Too many superpowered beings around, probably. Still…

SSZZZZ – BANG!

Zombie parts rained from the sky and Gambit tried to listen to Xander as the big cat read through newspapers and periodicals with Methos. The problem was that there was a strong undercurrent of despair and hopelessness coming from the big cat that kept distracting him, more so than the occasional brave zombie.

Gambit couldn't blame him though. Out of the three of them, he was the Demon Hunter and he was now trapped in a form that couldn't hunt them. If they had been regular zombies than his claws and fangs would be rather effective weapons, if a little gross. These weren't regular zombies though, and neither he nor Methos was willing to risk the black panther in their midst getting infected with this T-virus.

He added a few copies of the latest Jackie Collins bodice-ripper to the fire and wondered what they were gonna do. From what he'd learned from Xander's reading, this world was on the edge of dying. The Apocalypse had happened here in the form of a research facility run by the Umbrella Corporation.

There was only a little that they could find out in a small town bookstore, but it seemed as if this Umbrella Corporation had been trying to find a way to create mutants; superpowered beings. They chose the path to that via a mutagenic virus that would alter the DNA of infected individuals. It worked, but it wasn't predictable enough and it only mutated a small percentage of the test subjects, so they tried again.

The T-virus surprised them all when it mutated itself and then got out of control. An entire metropolis, Raccoon City, had to be blasted into rubble with an air strike. Obviously, someone who had been in the early stages of the infection had gotten out.

They had no idea how much time had passed since the articles had been written. Could be months, could be years.

SSZZZZ – BANG!

It was a safe bet that whatever they were gonna do to contain the T-virus in London had failed and the whole of the United Kingdom had fallen. It was too bad that Cassandra didn't slip headfirst into the portal herself. He'd cheerfully feed her to the zombies in thanks for sending them here.

**

* * *

**

28 – The Plan

Methos stood in the doorway with Xander next to him and leaning up against the immortal's long legs. Gambit carefully placed the latest load of Dean Koontz novels on the fire and tried not to smirk when both of his friends flinched in repressed horror at the book burning. Gambit felt bad about it, but not bad enough to choose rampaging zombie hordes attacking due to a lack of the one thing they feared: fire.

"We should leave this town as soon as possible."

Gambit turned around to eye his friend carefully. "Y' think that we might find someplace that isn't filled wit' de hungry undead, homme?"

Green eyes looked past him, haunted and dark. "I doubt it. Maybe, but…" Methos sighed and then straightened his shoulders. The facade of Adam Pierson slipped away and the immortal warrior came to the fore again. "Our best bet is to find a vehicle and then search out food and better shelter. I'm thinking an isolated farm or something along those lines. We might discover uninfected people, but if they're zombies instead, it probably won't be hard to destroy the small number we'd find there."

Gambit considered it for a moment. "True. Plus we could stand t' have a nice place t' sleep, a steady supply of water an' food that hasn't gone bad. Most farms would have lots of canned food, fruit an' veggies at least."

"If we find someplace safe, hopefully with a gas generator, we might be able to find a way to connect with the world outside of this island. I refuse to believe that there aren't places where this virus hasn't hit."

A muscle in his jaw clenched and Gambit swayed on his feet from the force of emotion, strong determination riddled through with fear, that radiated from the immortal.

"I absolutely refuse to entertain the notion that I am stuck here and will eventually end up the only human in a world filled with flesh eating zombies."

Gambit frowned even as Xander rubbed his cheek against the immortal in an attempt to comfort him.

"Don' y' think that y' might end up one too?"

Methos shook his head. "Not going to test it, but…" he sighed a hopeless sort of sigh, "I have a feeling my immortal healing would prevent me from getting the virus."

A twisted smile belied the bleak emotion behind it. "Just imagine, trapped for all eternity with only them for company."

Gambit turned and looked out past the fires to the shuffling hordes of moaning and rotting zombies. He rather thought if that was the case then Methos would be better off taking his own head.

**

* * *

**

29 – New Wheels

It was early morning the next day when the three of them stealthy made their way towards the edge of town looking for a suitable vehicle that hadn't been too badly damaged in what must have been riots when the T-virus first hit town. Xander might be feeling bad about his inability to fight the zombies, but they were using his hyperactive sense of smell ruthlessly. Gambit couldn't feel any real emotions off of the zombies beyond an all pervasive hunger and unfocused rage that overlaid the entire town, but Xander could smell them coming from far off.

The big cat led him and Methos through several twisting streets, cutting across backyards and down dimly lit alleys. They were careful to be quiet, but none of them were sure how much damage the virus did to the minds of the infected. It was obvious that thought processes were lowered to an almost animal level, but did it affect their ability to see, hear, smell or communicate with others like them?

It wasn't long before they came across a big blue SUV type vehicle. It seemed to be intact, no obvious damage visible. The driver's side door was hanging open and a woman's shoe lay on the sidewalk next to it, her purse fallen to the floor under the dash. Flashing a quick glance at Methos, who had somehow fallen into the role of team leader when they were out in the field, Gambit reached in and rifled through the purse until he found keys.

"Well?"

Methos frowned. "Either she, whoever she was, was trying to escape or had just pulled into town and didn't know about the danger. It's pretty obvious that she was grabbed and dragged off." He turned and glanced down at Xander. "Do you smell anything living around here?"

A soft whine that was more regret than pain. =No. No one living.= Xander looked over into the truck beyond Gambit, his one eye dark with pain. =She had lovely perfume though…=

Methos shifted his gaze from Xander to Gambit. He shook his head no and the immortal sighed. "Climb on in, if it doesn't start, we'll keep looking."

Gambit reached around and unlocked the backdoor. Xander hopped in and settled himself on the comfortable back seat. He then tossed the keys to Methos and slid into the passenger seat. Methos raised an eyebrow in question, but when Gambit pulled out a few cards he nodded and climbed in. The SUV started fine.

They stopped at the edge of town at a gas station. Methos topped off the tank while Xander wandered into the small mini-mart area. With a smirk, Gambit started going through the small three-bay garage. It didn't take him long to find a few red plastic gas cans.

"Figure it wouldn't hurt t' have some extra gas wit' us, heh?"

Methos smirked back at him and nodded, gesturing him to the other pump.

"Petrol."

Gambit rolled his eyes. "Y' talkin' t' a po' Cajun boy from de swamps of Louisiana. An' s'far as dis boy concerned, it be gasoline, heh?"

Methos smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. Gambit figured it would be a long while before that happened. Cassandra hurt him more with her vicious words than she had by pushing him through the portal and it would take time to heal.

=Gambit, come get this when you're done.=

He looked up just in time to see Xander nudge a brown cardboard box overflowing with a bag of potato chips and other snack foods out the door of the mini-mart before the cat headed back inside. He capped off the last gas can and opened the back of the SUV. Tucking them into place as securely as he could, he turned and loped off to see what his cat had gotten into this time.

Mental grumbling about a lack of opposable thumbs coming through loud and clear, he saw Xander stare from a second box up to a case full of soda's, tea and bottled water. Grinning, he opened the door on the case and started loading up the box with water and tea.

"Good idea, mon chat noir."

As soon as the box was filled, he lifted it up and started to walk out.

=Don't forget to grab the lighter display…oh, and the big box of matches.=

With a snort, Gambit stopped at the cashier's counter, grabbed up the lighters and matches and dumped them into the box. He walked back to the SUV with Xander trailing behind him pushing the box full of snack foods.

By the time that the two of them finished packing up the back of their stolen SUV, Methos had finished topping off the tank. They were just settling into their seats when the first zombie shuffled its way along the street towards them.

"Fuck!"

Methos started the vehicle and pulled out of the lot even as Gambit leaned out his open window and threw a handful of cards.

SSZZZZ WHOOOMP!

They barely made it a full city block when the gas station went up in flames. It was loud enough to hurt the ears and rumble the ground. They all stared as a towering pillar of flames roared up, sucking away all the air and burnt the sky.

"That was sorta fun, mes amis. Hope Gambit get t' do that again someday."

**

* * *

**

30 – Camping

Gambit was willing to drive on through the night, but Methos insisted they stop. They were safe enough here and really, after several hours cramped up in the SUV, everyone had needed to stretch their legs and water a tree.

And it really was safe, odd as that was to think after their trip through town. The biggest danger facing them at the moment was the lack of toilet paper and a dozen zombie sheep. Gambit actually felt sorta bad for the zombie sheep. Not the brightest animals normally, they were almost frighteningly stupid with half their brains rotted away. They kept trying to come after the campers, but they would inevitably get tangled up in the wire wrapped around their fence corral. Gambit had to remind himself not to go rescue the sheep from themselves. They were zombies, after all.

The sheep not withstanding, that lack of toilet paper was becoming an issue. He was almost at the point that he was willing to embarrass himself by asking Methos to point out which plants would be best and not cause a rash. He didn't think anyone would survive him having to deal with a poison ivy rash on certain portions of his body. He'd end up committing murder out of sheer frustration.

He could hear Methos snoring, however and didn't want to risk waking the immortal up. The man had been in a foul mood ever since being thrown headfirst through the portal by that crazy witch and hopefully a bit of sleep would help.

Bleating caught his attention and he turned to watch another sheep try and figure out how to get past the fence so that it could reach them. It got tangled up and bleated louder. Gambit bet its wool was soft, but getting close enough to cut some off would mean to risk getting bitten. He wasn't that desperate. Yet.

It made him wish he'd thought ahead and brought along a Jackie Collins book. Lord, Rogue'd kill him just for thinking that last thought. Jackie Collins was one of her favorite authors, but he couldn't stand her. He'd spent too many years failing to live up to the standards her romantic leads set. Toilet paper substitute would solve the problem and provide a petty sort of revenge as a bonus.

=My God, Remy= Mental snickering had him looking over at the large cat crouched in the tree across the clearing. =You think the craziest things when you're outta whack. Just go take a dump and feel better already.=

Gambit flipped Xander off. "*Fuck y', cher. Stay outta my business, mon chat.*"

Xander snickered in his head some more. =I'm trying, but you're thinking too loudly. Just… go check the glove box for the SUV's owner's manual or something. It'll give you something to read until it can serve a better purpose.= More snickering. =I'll keep watch on the zombie sheep for you.=

Gambit glared with half indignation and half embarrassment for a full minute in an attempt to prove he wasn't doing anything just because he'd been told to. Then he wandered off to check the glove box. The poison ivy option just didn't bare thinking about and wool off of a zombie sheep was...well, it was something that Bobby would try.


	4. GMX IV

**_The Adventures of Gambit, Methos and a cursed one-eyed cat named Xander_ **

Genre: crossover, series of related ficlets  
Characters: Gambit (X-Men), Methos (Highlander) and Xander (Buffy)  
Rating: R (to be safe - each ficlet varies)  
Disclaimer: I don't own any character from any of the various fandoms. I'm not making $ from this.  
Summary: Gambit's life takes a turn for the surreal. Then stuff happens.

**

* * *

**

31 – Midday Surprise

The shopping excursion hadn't gone quite as planned.

Oh, they had managed to get a lot of good stuff at the small village general store. Canned, tinned and boxed food that didn't go bad. Bottled juice and water. Energy bars, chewing gum, and to Gambit's delight, personal hygiene products had rounded out their finds.

Unfortunately, when they came out of the store with bags and boxes full of stuff they had found their SUV surrounded by a large group of shuffling and moaning zombies. Things had only gone downhill from there. Xander had to hang back unless absolutely necessary because he couldn't bite, nor could he hold a weapon. Gambit was usually their ace in the hole, pun intended. His charged cards killed the zombies they hit and usually scared away the ones nearest his victims. With them by the SUV, however, he was limited in how he used his cards.

Methos' sword was still as effective as ever and they were pretty sure that he was immune to the T-virus because of his immortal healing. Which was fine, but Gambit didn't want to test that theory. Fighting the zombies with his bo staff was good for knocking them down or pushing them away, but it wasn't really enough to take them out permanently. Even a fatal wound with the bo wouldn't stop them; the T-virus just reanimated the dead flesh.

Things were looking desperate. They either had to find a way to chase the zombies away from the vehicle or they were going to be forced to retreat. Gambit couldn't simply blow them all sky high since that would take the SUV with them. Maybe they could lead them off and then circle back around?

"Methos, I…"

Whatever he was going to say was completely cut off when a giant swirling blue vortex opened up about ten feet from the battle. Electricity arced across the parking lot, most of it heading straight for Methos who merely screamed, shuddered and absorbed it. The air became charged with static and the roaring noise was unbelievable even as a strong wind came out of nowhere to blow the flaps of Gambit's trench coat around his body.

The zombies freaked out and ran away, moaning and lurching on unsteady feet. One of them took a blast from a bolt of lightening. Unlike Methos, the zombie was not strong or tough enough to handle the immense influx of power and he exploded in a rain of burning gore.

Then a rotund man wearing a faded and tattered suit and a neatly trimmed full beard fell out of the vortex. He hit the ground hard and rolled. A pretty young brunette woman in blue jeans and a short leather coat appeared right behind him.

Gambit exchanged a glance with Methos and saw the banked excitement there even as awe, joy and relief flooded the psi-link from Xander. If these two could reproduce their portal, they maybe there was a way out of this god-forsaken reality.

Before he could call out to the two another person fell out of the vortex. He was a tall and strong looking black man in a leather jacket that failed to hide his weaponry as he tumbled to lay beside the older man. Then the vortex spit out another man, this one younger than the other two, pale skin and dark hair in a pair of tattered jeans and a dirty yellow windbreaker.

Suddenly the vortex sucked up into itself and disappeared with a rush of air. The abrupt silence was nearly deafening.

Gambit grinned. "Well, mes amis. As much as I have t' admit t' being glad t' see y' arrive, I also have t' admit t' feelin' bad that y' stuck here."

The four turned quickly and frowned at the two weapon wielding men standing on either side of a huge panther.

"Um…" the college age boy said. Gambit just grinned harder and tipped down his sunglasses to expose his burning red eyes.

"Welcome t' Hell."

**

* * *

**

32 – Rooftop Traveling

Gambit sat on the roof of the SUV with the college boy and the big black man and sulked. His little dramatics after meeting the other four dimensional travelers had almost made them refuse to believe that they were in danger from anything but Remy himself. They wanted to stay in town and they were on the very edge of refusing to leave with Gambit and his friends. That's when the braver zombies returned of course.

A quick battle and an even quicker explanation ensued. That led to Methos driving them out of town with the strange femme in the backseat with Xander and the older suit wearing man in the passenger seat next to Methos. Gambit rode on top of the SUV with the other two and took great joy in blasting zombies with his cards while his new companions fired their guns from either side of him.

It had been very surreal.

Now that they were past the town limits and heading wherever the pissed-off ancient immortal decided on, Gambit was suffering through a Methos lecture as interpreted via Xander's telepathy. Thankfully, Methos' temper was beginning to cool down.

=Oh,= Xander's mental voice was both smug and amused, =Methos also said that if you ever pull such a stunt again, he's gonna put you over his knee and spank you with the flat of his sword.=

Gambit blinked rapidly at that last bit and couldn't quite help wondering if it was meant as a threat or a come-on. Xander dissolved into mental laughter and Gambit loftily ignored him. Instead he took a moment to miss Jake. The Courier would have loved the idea of him being threatened with a spanking. In fact, he'd probably have insisted that Gambit really deserved one.

"Can you tell us what in the world is going on here?" Gambit looked up to see the tense faces of their newest travel companions. The boy was the one who spoke, but the black man was nodding along. "And also, no offense, but…what are you?"

With a sigh, Gambit pushed his sunglasses up on his head and fully exposed his, admittedly, eerie red on black eyes. The black man hissed even as the boy leaned forward to see them better.

"Gambit be a mutant," he said. Before either could ask, he continued, "Which means that he has a mutated genetic sequence in his DNA. That causes some minor physical differences, like his eyes an' some o'ter powers, like his bio-kinetic charge. De world that Gambit from has lots of folks wit' mutations." A frown. "No one really sure why, but maybe ten percent of de population be mutant."

Both of them arched up an eyebrow at him. He wasn't sure if it was from his explanation of mutants or from listening to him speak about himself in the third person. At this point he really didn't care which and his speech patterns had been set years and years ago. He wasn't about to change now.

"As for what be going on?" Gambit shrugged lightly. "We still figuring that out ourselves. We came t' this world through a portal too an' now we stuck here wit' no way back. That's not a good thing 'cause as far as we can tell, this world is dead or dyin'."

The boy tilted his head, his eyes unfocused slightly. It was obvious that he was thinking hard. The man wasn't going to let it go at that though. He gestured back down the road in the direction they had just come.

"What the hell was up with those…people things back there? That was…all sorts of messed up. I don't like having to fire my gun into crowds and I know that Q-Ball here feels the same."

The boy looked up and nodded in agreement and Gambit grimaced and sighed.

"We still piecing it all together." Gambit frowned, tipped his head back slightly and considered. "Methos an' Xander been doing most of de research, but…nearest I can figure is that de company Umbrella Corporation had a military contract t' build some sort of bio-weapon. They tried t' create a virus that would infect a person an' then mutate them t' have powers." He grinned. "Take it from de man born that way, it ain't all it's cracked up t' be."

"So they're mutants?" The boy frowned and gestured vaguely, "They don't seem to be anything like you and if you're a mutant…" He trailed off in confusion.

"Non, they not mutants." Gambit shrugged and wished he had some cigarettes, "De virus worked, just not as predictable as they hoped. Not everyone mutated right an' got powers. So, they call it a partial success an' start workin' on a new formula, better an' stronger, heh? It de second virus they developed that cause all de problems. De T-virus got loose an' began infectin' people. Only, it don' do what they hoped because it mutated itself, not de victims."

"It rot them from de inside out, including their brains. What's worse is that killin' 'em don't always stop 'em cause de virus can reanimate dead tissue. Dismemberment an' fire seems t' kill 'em permanent, but that's it."

They both stared at him in shock for a long moment, unable or unwilling to try and confirm what he'd said until the big black man pulled it together a bit.

"Are you telling me those people things were zombies?!"

**

* * *

**

33 – The Farmhouse

The SUV pulled into the drive of an isolated farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. It would have been rather picturesque if it hadn't been for the fact that it seemed abandoned. The garden was overgrown with weeds and there was some sort of bean crop rotting in the fields.

Methos didn't pull up quite close enough for Gambit's empathy to sense any emotions from living people or that strange mix of hunger and rage that emanated from zombies. Xander stuck his furry head out of his window and sniffed at the air.

=I can smell 'em, Gambit. The place reeks of rot and decay.=

Sighing, he jumped down from the roof and sauntered over to the driver's side of the vehicle. He reached up and ran a soothing hand along Xander's head and neck and peered over his sunglasses at Methos.

"Furface can smell zombies, mon ami. What y' wanna do?"

The immortal sighed and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Are there a lot of them?"

=I don't know. More than one, but…it's hard to tell. The stink is coming from the house.= Another sniff of the air. =And the barn.=

"He don' know for sure. Says de house an' barn are infested wit' them, but can't tell numbers."

The suit wearing man shifted and rubbed at his short trimmed beard with one hand. "Perhaps it would be best to find a different accommodation? We could easily avoid the danger if we just moved on."

Methos shook his head after a moments thought. "I doubt that. We started in a mid-sized town, met you in a fairly small village and this is an isolated farmstead. If the T-virus reached here it's most likely everywhere."

Gambit shrugged and shifted his weight. "Campin' wasn't so bad. De sheep were too stupid t' be a danger t' anythin' but themselves."

Methos nodded. "True. But at the time we could have fit every one of us inside the truck incase we had to flee in a hurry. That isn't true now. If we had to escape a nomadic tribe of these things in the middle of the night it's very likely that one of you three up on top would take a tree branch to the face and be swept right into their waiting arms."

"Can't we just…I don't know, kill off the zombies and stay here?"

The femme looked a cross between being brave and not wanting to be anywhere near the walking undead. Methos considered it.

"Okay." He nodded. "Gambit, you're with me. We'll try to draw them out to fight on the front lawn. Open space to run and dodge is good and your two new friends can take pot shots from the roof. After that, the two of us will go in and make sure all the rooms are clear."

He slid out of the truck and adjusted his long trench coat. He pulled out his sword, checked the edge and grimaced, before looking up and catching everyone's eye for a moment. His gaze stopped on the boy and the black man.

"Which one of you has the most bullets left?"

A pause, then the black man answered.

"I have two more full clips."

Methos nodded. "Fine. Once we head inside, stay up on the roof of the SUV and play sniper." He pointed to the boy. "You drive if…something comes at the vehicle. Don't actually leave, because if I have to come hunt down my car and Gambit's cat then I'll be furious beyond belief."

=Hey!= Xander's mental voice was indignant. =I'm not Gambit's cat, he's my mutant!=

**

* * *

**

34 – Introductions, part 2

Most of the undead had wandered onto the lawn after Gambit had knocked on the front door. His falsetto yell of 'Avon calling' had set Xander to mental giggling in his head. The fight itself had been brief, but intense. There were a few small craters in the lawn and one unfortunate azalea bush was burning cheerfully. Several random zombie heads lay here or there, proof that Methos had introduced himself.

There had only been two zombies in the farmhouse itself and those had been easy enough to dispatch. Since they were planning on staying for at least the night, the suit wearing man suggested burning the remains. It had been a fast, but grizzly and foul task to round up the bits and pieces and pile them all together. A small splash of gasoline and a charged acorn took care of the rest.

It stunk though. Not even closing all the windows and lighting some candles helped much. No one felt up to eating dinner despite the hour and Xander was the worst off, waves of nausea rolling across the psi-link.

Methos handled the introductions for the most part. Gambit was sitting on the edge of the couch with Xander stretched out next to him, his big furry head in Gambit's lap and an empty bucket on the floor next to his feet for just in case. He petted the cat and tried his best to project calming and soothing thoughts, but the stink of burning zombies so close was just a bit too much.

He still had one ear tuned to the conversation though, so he knew that the belle femme was Wade Wells and the boy was Quinn Mallory. The suit wearing older man was Professor Arturo and the big black man was Rembrandt Brown. Sometime during the introductions, the two Remys had smirked at each other while the femme, Wade, snarked about the confusion of having two of them in the same house.

Quinn had gone off on some rambling lecture about quantum physics and folding the space-time continuum with added comments from the Professor. Methos seemed to almost be able to follow along, but the only thing that Gambit really got out of it was that the boy genius had built a gadget that randomly opened up wormholes between alternate realities. Great, except that he had no real way to control where those wormholes went and when they would open. The timer on the gadget still had a few days to go.

Fine. Shoddy planning, but there you go. The X-Men had also been known to pull stupid stunts like that, but Gambit was sure that Beast would love this boy and his mentor. It'd probably take a few optic blasts from Cyclops and a threat of claws from Wolverine to pry them out of Beast's lab.

On the bright side, when the timer ran down they were willing to take Gambit and his friends along with them.

When the discussion turned to the T-virus and its mutative effect on human flesh, Gambit tuned them out and focused on Xander. The big cat was really ill and was starting to develop a fever. He had the sinking fear that it wasn't the smell of burning zombies that was making him feel that way too. Stroking Xander's soft fur, he concentrated on sending soothing emotions through their psi-link.

**

* * *

**

35 – Sickness

"Methos!"

Gambit's shout echoed through the old farmhouse and roused everyone, not just the ancient immortal.

"Dammit, Methos! Hurry!"

Methos burst into the bedroom that Gambit had been sharing with Xander, his sword raised and ready to fight. Gambit looked up at him from kneeling next to the large bed where Xander's large furry body lay convulsing in a seizure. The pain, confusion and fear swamping the psi-link nearly overwhelmed him.

"What the hell?"

Gambit grimaced and gestured with one hand even as the other tried to smooth out rumbled fur.

"He's so sick. So much pain an' I don't know what t' do. I think…" blinking away the wetness in his eyes and turning to look hopelessly at his friend he choked. "I think that he caught de virus. I can feel him in my head an' he's so scared an' hurt."

Gambit shook. If Xander turned into a zombie and they had to kill him, he didn't know what he'd do. The psi-link would possibly kill him as well, or perhaps drive him insane. He didn't want to kill his friend and go insane. He didn't want Xander to be sick and turn into a god-forsaken flesh eating zombie. He didn't want to be on this hellish roller-coaster ride through portals anymore.

Suddenly homesick, Gambit leaned forward and cried softly into Xander's fur. He just wanted to take his big stupid cat and his big stupid immortal and go home. They could all drink beer and spar with Wolverine, flirt with the X-women, drive Cyclops up the wall and then escape down to DC and visit Jake until everyone's temper cooled off. It'd be fun.

Methos' large callused hand ruffled his hair and then settled to rub at the base of his neck. "Don't go borrowing trouble, Remy. It could be anything or nothing."

A soft sigh and then the immortal sat down on the edge of the bed and tried to look over Xander better. The seizure tremors were slowly fading, leaving an exhausted and overheated panther panting in pain on the sheets.

"I don't really know enough about feline physiology to make a diagnosis. And without a lab and real information about how to identify the virus, I can't be certain what it is."

He could hear the others shuffling their feet near the bedroom door as they listened in, but Gambit ignored them in favor of Methos and Xander.

"For all we know, it could be something he ate. Our meals have been very sketchy lately. This could also be some version of a cat flu. We don't know."

Gambit tried to take hope that this whole thing was nothing more than a bad case of food poisoning, but it was hard to do. His mind was being battered with Xander's pain and fear and a little pessimistic voice said that it couldn't be something that simple and easy to deal with.

"Look, I'll go get a bowl of water. Try and get him to drink some. He doesn't need to dehydrate and it might help cool him down. Maybe even a few damp towels over his fur would help." The hand on his neck squeezed gently. "You just watch over him tonight and we'll see how he feels in the morning. I don't want to assume it's the virus until I know for sure. I'd never forgive myself for killing him over anything less."

Gambit nodded. "Oui. Gambit don' wanna kill him either. Don' think I'd survive that sane, mon ami."

A pause that Gambit knew was Methos contemplating dealing with an insane mutant with the power to turn objects into bombs with just a single touch, and then the hand squeezed again in comfort. Standing, Methos shuffled to the door.

Gambit ignored the hushed voices behind him. He thought that maybe the Professor had offered to help research medical treatments for the big cat if they found a doctor's office or medical lab. The other's all agreed as well.

That was nice of them and he appreciated it greatly. He did. He just couldn't focus on them right at the moment. His entire mind was focused on Xander and trying to use his difficult to control charm to ease the pain and fear swirling through both of them.

Vaguely, he wondered if Stormy's goddess would hear him if he prayed.

**

* * *

**

36 – Pain

The convulsions lasted on and off all night.

When Xander was able to sleep, Gambit was bombarded by fever dreams. For a while there, Xander had been convinced that Gambit's presence in his mind was actually the witch named Willow and so he kept making teasing comments about lesbian sex with someone named Tara. Well, that and he kept insisting that the vampires should stop spinning the house as it was making him dizzy, but that's okay.

When Xander was awake and lucid, he went through rounds of emptying his stomach, drinking as much water as he could handle and then apologizing profusely. The fear and pain would dim slightly at times, but it never went away.

Sometime in the early morning just as the sky was beginning to lighten and Gambit was woozy with physical and mental exhaustion, Xander went into convulsions again.

This time was worse than all the others combined. They screamed in unison.

Scrambling feet throughout the house rushed in their direction, but Gambit couldn't worry about that. He was too busy trying to bleed off the pain into the Astral Plain. Agonizing didn't come close to what he felt pouring off of Xander. This was worse than undergoing surgery without an anesthetic, never his favorite way to spend the time.

The door bashed open and hands grabbed at him, steadying him and supporting him. It was only then that Gambit realized he had collapsed to the floor. He had a vague impression of strong arms and a dark worried face and he thought he saw Methos hovering over Xander.

Another burst of pain slammed into him and he began to convulse as well. It was unreal, like being burned alive and dropped in acid all at once. Xander and Gambit screamed.

Then, like a blow to the back of the head, he dropped into unconsciousness.

**

* * *

**

37 – Big

Something cool and soft rested against his forehead. Something warm and soft was under his back. A gentle hand patted his own.

His head throbbed as if he'd had far too much champagne and then insulted Victor Creed to his face. He knew this because he had done just that, once. A hangover combined with a broken nose had sucked incredibly and he'd learned his lesson about giving advice on oral hygiene to feral mutants very well.

Opening his eyes slightly, he was pleasantly surprised to find a pretty femme looking back at him. That she wasn't either Arclight or Vertigo come to smirk at him only sweetened the deal. The femme leaned forward and ran a gentle hand along his face, brushing a lock of hair behind his ear.

"Hey, how are you feeling?"

"Like Gambit insulted Sabertooth's breath again."

The femme, he remembered her name was Wade, smiled at him in obvious confusion. He grinned slightly.

"'Tooth be a mutant mercenary wit' super-strength. Last time Gambit told him t' go brush his teeth, he got punched in de nose."

Wade chuckled softly and Gambit smiled even as he wondered why she was sitting vigil over him. His mind played back looking for a moment he couldn't remember, but then it all slammed back into place in his memory. Xander. Unbelievable pain. Convulsions.

He tried to sit up in bed, "Xander!"

Startled, Wade tried to help him up even as she tried to calm and soothe him. "Shhh… It's okay. He's alive and, well…I don't know if it's fine, but…"

Scrambling up, he swayed on his feet. Wade gripped his arm and steadied him.

"Calm down. You don't want to fall over. I'll take you to him, just…its okay."

In less then a minute, they were across the hallway and pushing open the bedroom door. Methos, Quinn and the Professor were all standing over the bed and chatting softly to each other. It was what was on the bed that shocked Gambit hard enough to nearly collapse.

It was Xander; that much was certain, but instead of being the size of a tiger the black cat was now the size of a horse. A really large horse. He probably outweighed a Clydesdale, in fact.

"De hell?!"

The three men spun to face him. Methos grimaced.

"I think you were right about Xander getting the virus, Gambit."

He did collapse then. Wade held on fast though and lowered him gently to the ground, patting him and cooing nonsense in his ear.

"I don't believe it's the T-virus though…I think he caught the original version; the Progenitor virus."

**

* * *

**

38 – Surprise

Gambit was mostly recovered although he tired easy and had a persistent headache throbbing behind his eyes. Xander, on the other hand, slept for nearly 30 hours. He had been assured that this was most likely normal and for the best.

He tried to not worry too much, but it didn't work. Methos was a doctor, true, but he hadn't practiced medicine since the late nineteen-fifties and was very behind on the latest in techniques and pharmaceuticals. Both Quinn and Professor Arturo were genius scientists, but medicine and medical research was not their specialty. Gambit himself was far from stupid, but ever since he'd met Sinister he had shunned science, particularly medical or genetic research, and avoided it whenever possible.

They were flying blind, as Cyclops would say, and that wasn't a good thing when you were dealing with an engineered bio-weapon designed to mutate DNA. He'd never missed Beast and his labs so much in his life. After his work on the Legacy Virus, Dr. Henry McCoy was one of the foremost experts in the world.

A wash of sleepy confusion and hunger trickled down the psi-link and startled Gambit so badly he nearly dropped the deck of cards he had been shuffling repeatedly. He quickly straightened them up, slipped them into a pocket and hopped off the dresser, his mind focused on Xander.

"*Xander, mon chat?*"

He knelt down next to the sagging and abused bed struggling to support the massive feline. Soft fur tangled in his fingers as he absently petted a rounded shoulder.

"*Xander? Wake up, homme.*"

=Huh? What?=

An eyelid opened slowly, the dark orb underneath drifting lazily before focusing on Gambit.

=Hey, Remy.= A yawn exposed massive fangs in a maw full of mini daggers. =I had the strangest dream.=

"*Weren't no dream, mon ami. Y' were so sick. Y' feelin' better now, heh?*"

Xander seemed to think about it a moment before nodding. =Yeah. Hungry though.=

Relief rose up in him so fast that it nearly made him dizzy. Xander's mind and emotions didn't resemble the zombies at all. His thoughts were clear, if sleepy, and he seemed exactly the same as before if you overlooked his increased size.

"*Good. Y' been asleep awhile, so that's no surprise. Come on down stairs an' Gambit fix y' big breakfast.*"

With one last pat on his shoulder, Gambit stood up and stepped away from the bed. With another yawn and a brief stretching of his limbs, Xander slowly climbed to his feet and immediately bashed his head on the ceiling.

=Ow! Hey! Who lowered the stupid ceiling?= Dipping his head low, Xander jumped down onto the floor and rolled his eye up to glare at the large crack he'd made in the sheetrock. =Now I'm all concussion-y.=

Trying not to laugh, Gambit gestured Xander closer. "*Bend down an' let Gambit see.*"

Xander lowered his head and Gambit ran his fingers gently through the fur looking for any cuts.

"*Don' look like y' hurt. Maybe a bit of a bump, that's all.*" His grin melted away. "*Goin' t' have t' be careful, mon chat. Methos thinks that y' caught de original version of de virus. It made y' real big, like a horse. Everythin's goin' t' seem weird an' small until y' used t' it.*"

Gambit let go of Xander's head and watched as he looked around the suddenly small and cramped room while trying to understand what happened to him. Confusion, fear, anger and then finally resignation rolled along the psi-link.

=It's always me. Hyena possessions, fish-demon steam baths, flukage, mystical syphilis, telepathic cat transformations and now the Progenitor Virus. I swear the Hellmouth tacked an invisible sign on my back that reads 'Free Victim Here' and then let me wander off into whatever trouble took up it's offer.=

Gambit made himself a mental note to get all of those stories. Later. Right now he had a giant depressed cat on his hands.

"*It'll be okay, Xander. Let's just head on down stairs. Wade found a whole bunch of tuna fish cans an' some beef jerky de other day. Gambit tucked some aside just for y'.*"

Xander belly chose that moment to rumble loudly.

"*See? Y' out numbered.*"

The emotions radiating off of Xander lightened a bit and a mental snort of wry amusement tickled across his mind.

=Fine. But I need to visit a tree too.=

**

* * *

**

39 – Lazy Afternoon Debates

It was a warm sunny day. They were lounging on the back porch with the door leading into the kitchen wide open. This was mostly for Xander, whose ill fated trip from an upstairs bedroom to the kitchen resulted in bashing his head on the ceiling once, getting stuck in two separate doorways, a tumble down the narrow stairs, a broken lamp and three feet stepped on. He was now mildly afraid to return to such a small and enclosed place as the kitchen.

On the other hand, after watering a tree, eating three plates full of food and sunning himself for over an hour he was feeling much better and contented rumbles purred out of his chest. He was hilariously loud.

Wade, much like Amanda, found him irresistibly adorable and was more than happy to sit next to him and fondle his ears. This, of course, made Quinn incredibly jealous and though he tried to hide it he wasn't very successful. Gambit ran interference for Xander whenever it seemed that Quinn was going to fuss just because he was relieved to feel Xander's emotions shift from a depressed fatalism to smug satisfaction.

Rembrandt was deep in discussion with Methos and the Professor about what to do next. Quinn was also a part of it, but he kept being distracted. Still, they were trying to decide what to do. Ideally they would go to a medical center, somehow get the power back on and then run a bunch of tests on Xander to make certain that he wasn't going to keel over dead or have his brain start to rot.

The problem was that any medical facility was probably guaranteed to be filled with zombies. Doctors, nurses, lab techs and patients all wandering about just waiting for someone to eat. That was no ones definition of a fun way to spend the afternoon.

Gambit knew that he and Methos were fairly well equipped to deal with that. Even Xander to an extent despite his being stuck in a cat's body. His experience and knowledge combined with his ability to run fast and climb up almost anything made him less of a liability than expected and his keen nose and hearing more than made up for it.

The other four didn't have any of their advantages. While Gambit didn't have anything against flatscans, he had to admit that they often didn't have very good fighting and weapons skills unless they were military. Maybe he was being unfair. Quinn and Rembrandt had done fine shooting from the roof of the moving SUV and as dimensional travelers they had all probably faced their share of danger. It was possible that the younger three were good fighters.

The problem was that he didn't know what their skill levels were, nor did Methos. He could trust the immortal at his back. Gambit had seen him fight and spar and had lived with him for well over a month, probably closer to two, before this adventure to Zombie World had even begun. It wouldn't do anyone any good for someone to die because the others misjudged their ability to handle a situation.

Still, he'd let Methos argue it out. If the old man figured that it was worth the risk, then Gambit would back him up and try to keep everyone alive in the process.

Gambit was pulled out of his circular and non-productive brooding by Quinn making more jealous noises. Turning to look, he saw Xander stretched out on his side and with his big furry head tipped back. Wade was scratching him under the chin and cooing at him. With a sigh, Gambit decided that he couldn't blame the poor boy, he was sorta jealous too. To make matters worse, Xander was mentally smirking inside his head.

**

* * *

**

40 – By The Horns

It was at that point the calm day and spirited conversation was broken by a horrific scream of rage. Everyone turned in time to see the entire barn shudder as great cracks appeared on the doors.

"Um…" Quinn grimaced, "That doesn't sound like a good thing."

Rembrandt Brown pulled out his gun, chambered a round and tilted his head far enough to crack his neck. "I'm gonna agree with Q-Ball on this one, guys."

The barn shuddered again and everyone tensed. Then Methos was moving across the porch towards the steps leading into the yard and Gambit met him there. They stopped at the edge of the grass, weapons out and ready for anything.

Another scream of rage and this time the barn didn't shudder so much as the twin doors simply buckled outward and exploded in rain of splintered wood. A huge, angry bull with shiny black horns that twisted up into razor sharp points came barreling out into the yard. Its massive and muscled bulk quivered with rage and then it turned its head to face the people on the porch.

"Oh shit." Wade's voice was a horrified whisper. "It's a freakin' zombie bull."

It charged. Then again, so did Gambit. Only his charge involved a handful of flung cards. The two that hit knocked the bull off course and left gaping and singed wounds, but it didn't kill it or even stop its attack.

"Gambit's day officially sucks."

Telescoping his bo staff to full length, Gambit stood there praying he wasn't going to be gored while letting the bull continue running towards him.

"Get ready ol' man."

At the last second, Gambit lunged to the side and jammed his staff into the ground between the bull's legs. He threw his weight against the weapon and grunted with satisfaction at the loud snapping sound. The bull tumbled to the ground with a shattered foreleg.

Methos barely waited a heartbeat for Gambit to get clear and then swung his sword in a huge overhead move and slammed it into the beast's great neck. It bit deep, but didn't go all the way through. The bull kept trying to get up and bite at Methos.

Twisting, Gambit shouted to the people on the porch. "Toss me something narrow! Butter knife, fork, anythin'."

Giving him an odd look, the Professor tossed him the fork Wade had used to scoop Xander's tuna out of its can. Gambit charged it as Methos took another swing. It bit deeper still, but the bull's neck was ridiculously thick. Darting over, Gambit took the charged fork and stabbed it deep inside the wound that Methos had made and then dragged the immortal back out of the way.

Seconds later the bull's head exploded in a rain of burning gore.

"Oh god…" Gambit looked over to see the four Sliders turning a sickly green. "That was way gross."

Xander turned to look at Gambit, a confused expression on his furry face. =What's with them? Exploding zombies are cool.=

'*Don' know, mon ami. I happen t' agree wit' y'.*"


	5. GMX V

**_The Adventures of Gambit, Methos and a cursed one-eyed cat named Xander_ **

Genre: crossover, series of related ficlets  
Characters: Gambit (X-Men), Methos (Highlander) and Xander (Buffy)  
Rating: R (to be safe - each ficlet varies)  
Disclaimer: I don't own any character from any of the various fandoms. I'm not making $ from this.  
Summary: Gambit's life takes a turn for the surreal. Then stuff happens.

* * *

**41 – Wade Makes A Decision**

Wade made the decision for the group about leaving. She did this by stridently demanding they do so as soon as humanly possible. Her reasons included the still smoldering fire pit of human zombie remains in the front yard and the gore strewn backyard complete with the remaining back half of a zombie bull.

It was clear that she was nearing hysterics.

Gambit sort of felt bad about that. Not bad enough that he wouldn't blow up the next zombie he ran into, but still, the femme was having a bad day. He'd had enough of those to sympathize.

She insisted that he and Methos try to clean the zombie gore off themselves while the rest of them packed up the SUV. Not wanting to upset her further, they both agreed and washed off themselves and their clothes with soap and freezing cold well water. Not the most pleasant bath ever, but at least they smelled better.

Wade, it turned out, was a very efficient packer when properly motivated. She raided the kitchen for food and the bedrooms for spare clothing, blankets and pillows. Quinn, smart boy that he was, put together a first aid kit from things he'd found in the various bathrooms. Rembrandt ransacked the farmer's den and found an old shotgun that was in good condition and several boxes full of shotgun shells.

When it was time to go, it was clear that Wade was still a little angry about the trauma she'd endured watching Gambit blow up a bull right in front of her. Wordlessly, she ushered the Professor to the passenger seat and then pushed the two other sliders into the backseat and crawled in between them. There was no room for Gambit and her fierce glare was a silent warning not to complain. Xander fitting in the SUV wasn't even an option anymore.

Gambit pouted.

Mental laughter caused him to turn around in time to see Xander lay down in the grass next to him. =Well, I'm as big as a horse, let's see if I can pretend to actually be one.=

"*Quoi?*"

Xander rolled his eye and snorted.

=Climb aboard you silly Cajun, or get left behind.*"

Gambit stared at him in wide-eyed astonishment for a moment and then his face split into a huge toothy smile.

"*Well, awright.*"

Climbing up so that he was straddling Xander's back, Gambit tried to find a spot behind his shoulders that was comfortable for them both.

"*How's this, mon chat?*"

Xander stood up and took a few experimental steps. =Hmmm, I can definitely feel your weight even though you don't feel that heavy. More like what I would expect a full pack to weigh instead of a grown man.=

"*Bien. Easy enough t' balance. Don' know 'bout running though. Have t' test that.*"

=Okay.= A pause. =Hang on.=

With that dubious warning, Xander took off in a loping run towards the SUV. Gambit twisted the fingers of one hand into the fur in front of him and whooped in delight. Mental laughter rang through his mind.

When they got to the truck, Xander slowed to a walk and Gambit let go. Beaming at Methos he spread his arms wide and called, "Look Ma! No hands!"

Methos reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose and groan.

**

* * *

**

42 – Trip Into Town

Riding on the back of a horse sized panther really was as cool as it sounded. Xander's stride involved a lot of shifting muscles and sinuous twisting that a horse could not have mimicked without breaking its spine. Running was even more fun as it involved a lot of dashing, leaping and jumping.

Gambit's smile was so big that it nearly split his head in two.

Xander was having a good time and was radiating a sort of playful joy as they ran along behind the SUV. As long a Methos didn't go too fast that is. Xander's top speeds were good for short bursts, but long stretches tired him out and he was just barely over being sick.

=It's too bad there aren't bigger trees around…=

"*Non, don' even think it, mon chat.*" He reached forwards and hugged the cat's big neck with one arm and ruffled the fur around an ear with the other. "*Gambit has no desire t' cling t' de back of a tree climbing cat t'day.*"

A mental giggle tickled his brain. It was accompanied by the mental image of cartoon versions of themselves climbing a tree, the tree breaking from the heavy weight of both of them and then ended with little cartoon Gambit squished under cartoon Xander who was pinned under the cartoon tree. It even included a little cartoon Methos standing off to the side pinching the bridge of his nose with a thought bubble filled with number signs, percent symbols, asterisks and ampersands in place of swear words.

Gambit goggled for a moment at the mental image, even as a part of his mind noted that Xander was getting really good at making them, before he began to laugh loudly.

"*Oh, that's too funny, mon chat. An' oui, de ol' man would kill us for that.*" A thoughtful pause as he considered it. "*Y' pro'lly right though. Y' t' big t' be climbin' de trees anymore.*"

Sadness drifted along the psi-link and Gambit knew it was because there were a lot of things that Xander wouldn't be able to do with him like this. He'd already lost so much just being a cat, but being a cat the size of a horse would be even more difficult.

=No, no tree climbing for me anymore.= A pause and then, =Except for the giant redwoods in California. I bet I could climb those beauties without any troubles.=

Gambit had never been to the redwood forest, but he had heard about them. Who hadn't? In his mind, he pictured them as giant trees the size of skyscrapers. If they really were as big as he'd heard, then yeah, they probably could support Xander's weight and size.

"*Fine, we go there some day. But only if'n we bring Jeannie along.*"

A wash of confusion along the psi-link as Xander searched his memory for the name Jeannie.

"*She de wife of de X-Men field leader. Codename be Phoenix. De femme be gorgeous wit' a mane of fiery red hair an' pretty green eyes. She also got de strongest TK that'd be willin' t' help get a kitten outta de tree instead of just blastin' de whole thing down. An' there ain't no way that Gambit can be carryin' y' down outta de trees on his back no more.*"

Xander padded along considering it. =Fine. When we get to your world, we'll drag her off on vacation to California.= He twisted his neck around so that his one eye could peer back over his shoulder at Gambit. =But wouldn't her husband object?=

Gambit chuckled and shrugged. "*Not if we get Wolverine t' convince him t' take de team an' call it wilderness survival trainin' or somethin'.*"

Xander laughed in that half purr half growl way of his. =Sneaky.=

"*Merci beaucoup, mon chat. Gambit tries.*"

Xander leapt on top of an abandoned car, crouched down and leapt off of it only to land next to the SUV.

=Think Methos would let us stop for a break? I'm getting kinda tired.=

Gambit worried at that. His friend had been deathly ill just as recently as two days ago.

"*I'll ask, mon ami.*"

He pulled out a card and charged it very lightly and then tossed it towards the driver side window. It exploded with a soft bang and a brief burst of light before dissolving into ash. The SUV slowed down dramatically and Methos rolled down his window, an irritated look on his face.

"Yes?"

"Time for a break. De chat be getting' tired. Needs a cat-nap an' some lunch.*"

Methos eyed the weary slump of Xander's shoulders and the soft panting of his breath for a moment and then nodded. He pointed towards an open and sunny meadow.

"Over there. We'll picnic for an hour or two and then hit the road again."

**

* * *

**

43 – The Med Lab

They had chosen a Med Lab where testing was done thinking that it would be easier to get rid of a few zombies there than the hordes that would be found at a large hospital. As a bonus, it would also contain the equipment and information that a local practitioner's office wouldn't. While both of those things were true, it didn't make it any more fun to clear the lab and try to set things up.

Their plan had been simple. Gambit would go in the back way with Methos and Rembrandt. The others would wait by the front door and pick off any of the zombies that fled in their direction. Xander's idea to use pre-made torches and Molotov cocktails was readily agreed upon and showed his experience with both Demon Hunting and working on a limited budget.

Thankfully, the building was only one story tall and had a flat topped roof. Xander was able to get up there without too much difficultly and Wade, Quinn and the Professor climbed up using the ironwork stairs on the building's side meant to provide access to the air-conditioning units and other mechanical equipment stored on the roof.

From those lofty heights, they flung down small bottles of burning vodka and a rain of bullets at those zombies that were chased out of the labs.

For those inside, it wasn't quite as easy or as clean cut. They were hampered by the fact that the space inside was very small and that they needed the equipment to be in one piece, not destroyed by fire, explosions or bullets. They were also facing a fair amount of zombies. In the end, it took Methos letting go of the restraints he normally kept his Quickening under and just wading through the zombies like Death personified.

Not so surprisingly, he was very good at it.

As it turned out, the zombies didn't like Quickenings any more than they liked fire. Which sort of proved Methos' theory about his immunity to the T-virus. At that point, Gambit and Rembrandt just acted as the mop-up crew for any zombie that fled the enraged immortal standing in a glowing and burning corona of his own power.

Methos was quite impressive and more than a little scary.

Once the zombies were all dead, it was a fairly nasty task to clean up the building and make it ready for their use. Gambit was stuck gathering body parts for burning and Wade, poor thing, was coming along behind him with a mop and a bucket of bleach. Quinn and the Professor were cataloging the undamaged items in the labs. They tried to gather the necessary equipment into one area and get things ready to go while Rembrandt worked hard to repair and start the gas fueled backup generators.

Methos just worked to reign in his Quickening and calm his temper. Xander helped by attempting to cuddle him and purring loudly enough to rattle windows. And really, you've never been cuddled and purred at until you've had it done by a cat the size of a large horse. It's very warm, very soft, very loud and very very surreal.

**

* * *

**

44 – Bloodwork

The brain trust; being Methos, Quinn and the Professor, had managed to get several pieces of equipment working again including a computer with an internet hookup. Satellite feeds let them discover that there were indeed pockets of humanity scattered about the world that were safe from the virus, mostly self-contained islands, but still.

They also found lots of information on the T-virus and some bits on the Progenitor virus. Apparently, Umbrella Corporation tried massive cover-ups and refused to share their research after Raccoon City fell to the T-virus. When other areas began to report victims of the disease, though, several governments had authorized raids on their various facilities worldwide. It didn't take long for all of the information and research to become public knowledge.

The biggest problem was that there was no cure. Umbrella Corporation never bothered to engineer one and the rest of the remaining world was still scrambling like mad to create one.

Finally, after a bit of research, Methos had come and taken what seemed to be a large amount of blood from Xander and then demanded that Gambit go out into the city and get more petrol. They couldn't risk the generator running out of fuel.

So, that led to Xander acting as trusty steed for Gambit and Rembrandt. He could run faster and leap higher than either of the men. With Gambit playing sniper and guardian with his cards and Rembrandt siphoning gasoline out of various vehicles, it worked out well. Too bad they had already made two runs and were scheduled for another soon.

Wade, on the other hand, made a fairly good den mother. She made sure that everyone remembered to eat, reloaded guns, assisted with finding or setting up equipment and provided entertaining snark the entire time.

Gambit thought it was a pity she found him scary and mildly insane.

Currently, the lovely Miss Wade was leaning up against Xander's bulk while the big cat lounged contentedly in the middle of the patient waiting room. It was the only room in the whole facility that he felt comfortable in since it was so large and didn't involve tight low-ceilinged hallways to get to.

"The timer's running down."

Gambit looked up at her and grinned.

"That's de best news Gambit hear in a long while." He tipped his head sideways gesturing towards the front door and beyond, "This world be more than just a little on de creepy side, oui?"

Wade shuddered and shared a quick glance with Rembrandt. It didn't take too much thought to realize that they found the zombie's less creepy than their new allies. Wade stepped lightly around Gambit ever since the bull incident and Rembrandt had avoided Methos ever since seeing his Quickening blaze out around him in a shimmering corona of power and glory.

Gambit grinned.

He was about to tease her when Methos, Quinn and the Professor walked into the waiting lounge, tired but happy and triumphant. Everyone ignored Rembrandt shifting away from Methos.

"Congratulations," Quinn said, "It's definitely the Progenitor virus and not the T-virus."

Xander sighed with relief and seemed to melt into a sprawl on the floor. Wade hugged him and Methos reached out to pat his shoulder. Gambit rocked back at the rush of relief that bombarded him over the psi-link.

"Well, your brains won't rot out of your ears," Methos smirk could be heard in his voice, "but you really should try not to bleed on anyone. Statistics show that the Progenitor virus is unpredictable. If you infected one hundred people, ninety of them would get sick like they had a horrible flu and then getter better and go on with their lives. The other ten would get sick and then change like you did. Best not to chance it since there is no real way to determine who would mutate."

Xander nodded his head seriously even though his mind voice was wry. =And of course the Zeppo would be one of the lucky few. The weird stuff always happens to me.=

**

* * *

**

45 – Sliding

Methos wanted to drive the SUV through the wormhole. Rembrandt backed him up. His car had gone through one and it had worked. Quinn pointed out that he'd wreaked it on the other side. Methos thought it was worth the risk. It could hold their provisions and provide transportation of the group, minus Xander and Gambit. Professor Arturo was torn between not having Rembrandt land on top of him and dieing in a fiery wreck.

"Hold!" The arguing came to a stop at Methos' shout.

The ancient immortal sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "First off, we should find somewhere not in the middle of town to open the wormhole. Second, I'll drive the SUV alone. That way if something does go wrong and the trip ends in a blaze of twisted metal, I'm the only one that will die."

"Don' worry, mon ami," Gambit shuffled his last deck of cards and grinned. "If that happen, Gambit wait till de fire cool an' then drag y' corpse out an' give y' a proper burial."

That comment earned mental snickers from Xander, incredulous looks from the four sliders and a wry, "Gee thanks," from Methos.

Off to the side Rembrandt leaned forward between Quinn and the Professor, "Unless this next world is also an apocalyptic wasteland, I say we ditch these lunatics."

Arturo nodded and Quinn rolled his eyes and elbowed his friend, but didn't argue. Gambit just laughed although he couldn't really blame them. Even for dimensional travelers, Gambit and his friends must seem weird and scary.

It didn't take them long to pack up the SUV with all of their supplies and head out of town to the nearest open space. It was decided that Methos would drive through first, followed by Gambit and Xander. That way, no one would have to deal with having either two tons of truck or one ton of cat landing on them. The rest would follow quickly, so they would have to clear out of the way fast.

Suddenly, Quinn was yelling out, "Get ready. Ten more seconds."

Methos started the SUV and Gambit quickly vaulted onto Xander's back and shifted around until they were both comfortable. He dug his fingers deeply into the fur in front of him and grinned widely.

"*Gambit hope this ride be smoother than Cassandra's was. That femme aimed us at de wall on purpose for sure.*"

=I wouldn't be surprised if she did. She was a real bit-ca.=

Chuckling madly, Gambit watched as Quinn aimed the timer into open space in front of the SUV and then pushed a button. A large jolt of power shot out of the timer and then quickly formed into a spinning vortex of light, sound and punishing winds. It was quite beautiful, but it didn't look like the portals made from magic that he'd seen.

Quinn stepped away from the SUV and waved Methos forward shouting, "See you on the other side."

With a maniacal grin just as big as Gambit's, Methos drove into the wormhole.

"*Y' ready, mon chat noir?*"

=Ready.=

With a shriek of pure joy, Gambit clung to Xander's fur with his fingers and clamped down on his ribs with his legs as the giant cat took two loping strides and then leapt into the whirling madness that was a hole through time and space.

**

* * *

**

46 – The Village

Gambit had only a few seconds to realize the danger. Reacting instantly, he shifted his weight and clung tightly as Xander hit the ground hard on all four paws and then sprang forward in a large leap. Their speed and momentum dizzying, the great cat finally skidded to a halt close to the SUV instead of smashing into it.

"*Oooo, boy! That was fun!*"

Methos climbed down out of the truck, a huge lunatic smile on his face. "Almost lost it and rolled the SUV on the landing, but…" he chuckled and patted the blue paint job fondly, "managed to keep it on its tires after all."

A thud followed by a deep voice swearing caught their attention. They turned to watch just as Wade flew out of the wormhole and slammed into Rembrandt. She was swiftly followed by Professor Arturo and then Quinn. Quinn was just pulling himself to his feet when the wormhole sucked up into itself and disappeared.

"Over here, guys."

The four sliders made their way over to them at Methos' call, but something was wrong. Now that the wash of energy, noise and light from the wormhole had vanished, they were able to focus on the world around them and something was just…off about it. The sliders seemed strange too.

"Um…" Quinn's eyes were unfocused.

"I…I don't like it here." Wade looked around with a frown on her face. "These ruins are creepy. We should go. We should go now."

Professor Arturo was nodding in agreement even as Rembrandt rubbed at his own arms as if for warmth.

"Yeah…the fire probably didn't leave anything intact around here anyway. We should get in the SUV and leave." He glared at Methos as he walked past him, "Unless you wreaked it."

Wade and Rembrandt were already heading towards the truck. The Professor followed them swiftly, dragging along Quinn who still seemed to have trouble focusing. Gambit and Methos shared a confused look.

=What fire? And ruins?= Xander's mental voice was just as confused. =Everything looks out of date and all, but…I wouldn't call it ruins.=

"Hey Methos? Y' see any ruins or evidence of a fire, homme? De chat noir an' Gambit don' see any."

Methos looked around. "No. I don't. Just looks like a village to me. An old one at that."

Gambit nodded and tried to see the village through his mutant psi abilities.

"There be people around here, too. Watchin' us. An' somethin' pressin' on my psi-shields."

Methos nodded and Xander was obviously trying to figure it out, the psi-link humming with thought.

=Magic.=

"*Heh?*"

"Methos! Come on. Let's go!" Wade's voice called. Turning, they saw that the four sliders were already in the SUV, anxious to leave.

=There is some sort of pervasive mind-magic in the area.= Xander paused. =And I can't believe I just used the word pervasive in a sentence. Still, the magic is affecting them, I think. Making them see ruins instead of a village. Making them want to leave. I can feel it. Not sure why it isn't effecting us.=

"*Maybe de psi-link is helpin' t' shield y'. De spell pressin' on my shields, but it's not getting' past them. As for Methos…*" a shrug. "*maybe its 'cause of his Quickening.*"

Gambit turned his head to see Methos leaning in the window of the SUV talking to the group of four. He shifted his weight and gracefully slid down off of Xander's back and sauntered over.

"Xander say that he can feel magic all over de village. It seems t' effect de mind. Don' know why it ain't makin' de rest of us see de illusions or feel de need t' leave, but…"

Quinn frowned at him even as Professor Arturo huffed in exasperation. "Magic? Really Gambit, have you finally taken leave of what little sanity you had to begin with?"

**

* * *

**

47 – The Magician

Things probably would have deteriorated into a nasty argument if something extraordinary hadn't happened at that very moment.

Flames burst out of nothingness merely ten feet in front of the SUV. When the flames dissipated, they saw an ancient man with long flowing silver hair and beard wearing an ankle-length velvet robe of deep ocean blue with silver ruins embroidered into the hems and trim. An oddly shaped hat perched on his head and his glasses were shaped like half-moons. Above him, singing purest notes of joy and love was a brilliant scarlet and gold bird with long curling plumes of tail feathers hanging down.

"Magic?" The man's voice should have trembled with age, but it didn't. It was deep, friendly and carried great power. "Indeed. Welcome to Hogsmeade."

Those simple words, or perhaps the power behind them, seemed to have an immediate effect on the four humans. They blinked rapidly and even shook their heads as if waking from a dream, then looked about wide-eyed and slack-jawed.

"Forgive us our little repelling wards. We rarely have muggles come here. Even via magic portals and accompanying other wizards."

A flicker of confusion washed over the stranger's face even as the large bird settled down on his shoulder to coo in his ear.

"I must say, it might have been better to arrive here by port-key. You couldn't have brought your muggle…" he seemed to fumble for the word, "vehicle, but then again we don't have any roads here to drive it along."

Gambit and Methos exchanged looks even as Quinn stared out the window in amazement. "Um…"

=Gambit? This guy just radiates magic. It's worse than standing next to Willow when she's doing a major ritual…and this guy is just smiling at us.=

Xander sauntered over to them, standing behind Gambit and Methos.

=Be nice.=

Gambit nodded and poked Methos gently in the arm. "Xander say this guy be very powerful. Lots of magic. Say's t' play nice."

Methos nodded and took a half step forward.

"My name is Methos. Behind me is Gambit and Xander." The immortal gestured to each of them respectively. "In the vehicle are Professor Arturo, Quinn Mallory, Wade Wells and Rembrandt Brown. We…"

Methos paused and turned his head towards the others, a questioning look on his face.

"Go ahead an' tell de truth, homme. If he be as powerful as Xander say, then maybe he can help, heh?"

Methos nodded.

"We're dimensional travelers." He pointed. "Those four are from the same world and have a way to open portals, but they can't predict their destination. The rest of us are from three separate worlds. We each got into this dimension hopping thing in a far different way. We…all of us, just want to find a way home."

The ancient wizard nodded even as his sharp eyes examined them all. Finally, he smiled and gestured.

"Perhaps I can offer some assistance. My name is Albus Dumbledore and I am the Headmaster of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry."

**

* * *

**

48 – Albus' Decision

Sometime while they had been talking with the old wizard, Albus Something-door, a few of the braver souls in the small village began to peek out of their homes and businesses. From the few people that they could see, it was obvious that more than just their building techniques were outdated. Clothing that seemed to be a cross of the Victorian era and the wealthier high fashions from the medieval era were mix-and-matched with other items straight out of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

It was kinda creepy in a hey-look-at-that-isn't-it-cool sorta way.

Gambit paused for a second. Whoa, he was spending way too much time in Xander's head if he was thinking thoughts like that last one. Not that it wasn't true, but he had a reputation to maintain. Babbling, even only in his own head, wasn't a part of that.

"Headmaster Dumbledore?"

Everyone turned to see a lovely and quite busty brunette woman in a long flowing purple skirt and billowy white blouse that was cinched up tight to her waist with a brown leather garment that looked to Gambit's eyes to be the love-child of a belt and a corset. It was actually very fetching.

"Madam Rosmerta, how delightful to see you again my dear."

She didn't quite curtsey, but it was a near thing.

"Thank you Headmaster." She beamed at him for a moment, but then her smile faltered a bit as she looked over at the horse-sized cat and the battered blue SUV. "Is…is everything all right? Do you need me to floo the Aurors?"

The old wizard hesitated for just an instant. Gambit barely had time to tense before the wizard shook his head and smiled at her. "No, thank you my dear. No need for the Aurors. Just a few researchers trying to develop a new mode of transportation. I fear their calculations were just a bit off."

Gambit relaxed and he could feel Methos mentally pull back from the edge of violence he'd been riding. Neither knew just what or who these Auror things were but it couldn't have been any good for them.

The wizard chuckled and waved her off. "Everything is under control, my dear. Even if the surprise arrival in Hogsmeade was a bit startling, no one was hurt."

His blue eyes twinkled madly and Gambit felt a strange wash of power flicker across his psi-shields for an instant. Behind him, Xander tilted his head and made a strangely questioning half-purr sound.

"I'll just escort them up to the castle. No need to fret."

The woman, Rosmerta, swayed slightly before smiling and nodding in agreement. She was already backing away slowly.

"Of course, Headmaster. Good day to you, then."

She nodded at him, flicked her eyes at the rest of them with a tentative smile and then disappeared back into a cheery if old looking inn.

"The castle?"

Methos' voice might have seemed neutral to those that didn't know him, but Gambit could hear and feel the underlying tension. The old wizard seemed kind, but he held great power. It was not just the magic Xander could feel, he obviously had some sort of hold over the villagers. Powerful men made great allies, but they also made horrific enemies. Which one this Headmaster guy turned out to be was yet to be seen.

"Hogwarts, of course." The wizard gestured behind him. In the distance, up on a high hill there was indeed a large stone castle. One complete with towers, turrets, a drawbridge and pennons snapping in the breeze.

**

* * *

**

49 – The Wizarding World

"Oh my! I must say, this is quite an exhilarating thrill."

Gambit shifted a bit, and kept tight hold of the frail old man sitting in front of him on Xander's back even as mental laughter drifted through his mind along the psi-link. Muscles under him bunched once more and Gambit clung on tightly with his long legs wrapped tightly around Xander's thick chest just as the giant cat leapt back down off of the huge rock. Albus let out another breathless whoop of delight.

"This is better than riding a thestral!"

"*Okay, homme. Y' had y' fun. Don' make me drop de ol' man. He pro'lly curse Gambit t' have t' sit down t' pee. An' we ain't even goin' t' go there.*"

That odd half purr half growl that was Xander's laugh rolled through the air even as a mental image of a cartoon Gambit with comically huge breasts getting kicked out of the men's room and then directed pointedly to the ladies ran through his head.

"*Oh, ha-ha. Very funny.*"

Still, despite the teasing Xander did slow down and saunter over to pace beside the slowly moving SUV. Everyone's windows were down and most of them were grinning at the show they had put on.

"So, Headmaster Dumbledore," Quinn stuck his head out his window and called up to them. "Can you tell me a little bit about the energy field that surrounds the village back there. Some of us reacted very strongly to it. We…well, the village seemed to be deserted at first, a burnt out shell actually. And we had the urge to leave as soon as possible. Then…it just stopped."

The wizard chuckled softly.

"Ah, I'm not sure how it is in your world young man; but unfortunately the magical folk and the muggles, that is the non-magical folk, are segregated quite strictly here. All areas that are considered to be magic only locations have muggle-repelling wards and are covered in muggle-only illusions." A pause. "Don't worry. The official wards are strictly non-violent and will not harm any muggle. They simply encourage the muggle to leave the area."

Several emotions flickered over Quinn's face. It was obvious that he wasn't sure how to deal with the concept of magic.

"Um…I don't think I've ever heard of anything to do with magic on my own world."

=I don't think all worlds have an equal amount of magic.=

Gambit snorted and nodded in agreement. "Xander say that not all worlds be equal. Some have lots of magic, some have only a little. This world seems t' have a lot. Xander's world has a lot. Gambit's…some, but not this much. Methos' world had even less."

The old wizard seemed to examine that concept very closely.

"I have never considered that before. I suppose that it makes sense. If something in the far past occurred that would encourage the growth of magic in a few worlds, while in others a far different event came to pass that stunted magic's growth…" He nodded to himself even as he trailed off.

After a moment or two, he shook his head and smiled. "Forgive an old man his woolgathering. It's a fascinating topic and one I would like to revisit at a later time. For now however," he gestured to the castle they were heading towards, "I feel that I must give you all a brief overview of the world you are currently in."

"As I said, we are segregated from our muggle counterparts. All magical creatures and beings are kept a secret that is closely guarded. There are some, unfortunately, that feel magical people are inherently better than non-magical ones. It would be best not to shout your status as muggles too loudly. There is great…tension currently between those who would wish to oppress the muggles and those who believe that they have just as much a right to life and liberty as wizards."

It was Methos that asked, his green eyes narrowed in what could easily turn to anger.

"Are we in any danger?"

"You and your group shall be under my protection for as long as you stay at Hogwarts. I can't guarantee your safety if you should chose to leave and wander about, however." The old man gave a pointed look at the immortal. "I can provide you with transportation to a fully muggle area which would end the danger to the muggles you travel with, but I dare say that it would increase tremendously for your lovely feline."

And with that the wizard reached down and patted Xander's fur comfortingly.

**

* * *

**

50 – Hogwarts

Gambit wasn't sure what to expect from a magic castle where young children came to learn witchcraft. Maybe something a little spooky. Maybe something a little creepy. He was even willing to accept something that was a bad mix of Shakespeare's MacBeth, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and The Lord of the Rings.

Walking into a giant, multistory, stonework foyer with multiple moving staircases filled with sentient paintings and hundreds of children in black robes wasn't it. The ridiculous then took a turn for the surreal when an empty suit of armor took one look at Methos, pulled its sword and saluted him.

Methos, bemused and confused, pulled his own sword and saluted the suit of armor back.

The Headmaster blinked his eyes rapidly before beaming a huge smile at them. "You didn't tell me that you had been knighted, Sir Methos."

Methos turned a confused and surprised look at him. "Once or twice…"

The Headmaster nodded at him. "Well, my boy. I suggest you get used to that treatment. We have quite a few suits of armor around the castle. All of them are enchanted to defend the students, of course. However, they also seem to be able to recognize any knight they meet. A few of the bolder suits might even try to convince you to put them on and wear them about the castle." Twinkling blue eyes suggested a vast wealth of humor being suppressed. "It has been quite a long time since any of them have been claimed by a true knight of the realm."

"Lovely…" Methos turned to look suspiciously at the suit of armor even as he tucked his sword away.

"Floppy!"

A loud crack echoed around them, a flash of light and then a short thin greenish creature dressed in a royal blue velvet pillow-cover with bronze tassels at the four corners and a crest with a raven centered over it's stomach appeared. The creature only came up to Gambit's hip, had large bulging eyes the size of tennis balls and a long pencil shaped nose.

"Headmaster Dumbly-door called for Floppy?"

The wizard smiled gently at the creature. "Yes, Floppy." He gestured back to Gambit and company. "These guests will need to have quarters assigned to them at the base of Ravenclaw Tower. I will need you to appoint a house elf for each of their rooms as they are strangers to our world who traveled here from beyond."

The house elf creature's eyes grew even wider at that and it let out a breathy "Oooo" of awe before gathering itself to nod in agreement so hard Gambit was certain it's head would rattle off.

"Floppy will be getting rooms ready and will be appointing elves for Headmaster Dumbly-door's guests. Floppy will be doing this right away."

The creature, Floppy, snapped its fingers and disappeared with another flash of light and a loud echoing crack.

"What was that?" Wade's voice was a high pitched squeak.

"Hummm?" The wizard turned to face her. "Oh, yes. Floppy is a house elf. Gentle creatures, so eager to please…but very powerful. I dare say that we wouldn't be able to run the school without them."

He turned towards the stairs and gestured them to follow him.

"I'll show you to your quarters. I'm assigning you rooms near the Ravenclaw Tower. It will be the easiest of the suites for Xander to use. I'm also having Floppy, who is the Head Elf for Ravenclaw Tower; assign each of you a house elf to help you during your stay."

He gave them each a pointed look.

"Everything here in Hogwarts requires magic to use; the doors, the bathing facilities, the food, the lighting, everything. Your elves will provide you with that magic. I will ask that you be gentle and polite with them. They frighten easily."

Everyone nodded and murmured agreements to be kind to the funny little creatures that would be caring for them. Even Wade, who seemed torn between wanting to avoid them and being in desperate need of a bubble-bath.


	6. GMX VI

_**The Adventures of Gambit, Methos and a cursed one-eyed cat named Xander **_

Genre: crossover, series of related ficlets  
Characters: Gambit (X-Men), Methos (Highlander) and Xander (Buffy)  
Rating: R (to be safe - each ficlet varies)  
Disclaimer: I don't own any character from any of the various fandoms. I'm not making $ from this.  
Summary: Gambit's life takes a turn for the surreal. Then stuff happens.

**

* * *

**

51 – Toppin and Bobbin

=Gambit! Stop flirting with the painting and get in here.=

Gambit smiled at the portrait of a blushing young woman in a Victorian age pale green dress that guarded the door to the set of rooms he would be sharing with Xander.

"Ah, chere. Je suis desole, but Gambit must go now. De chat noir be callin' for him, heh?"

She nodded, blushed and waved her fingers at him. "Until later, Mr. LeBeau."

"Call me Remy, chere."

With a wink and a grin, he turned and walked into a lavishly appointed living room done up in blues, bronze and creams. There were a few brocade chairs, a short sofa and bookshelves lining the walls. At one end stood a large fireplace and windows lined the upper half of another wall. The last one had an open arch that led to a short, wide corridor that held several doors.

None of that is what grabbed Gambit's attention, however.

Xander had backed himself into a corner and was trying to push up against the stone wall and away from the two short house elves dressed in velvet and silk pillow shams. One of them was holding up what appeared to be a horse brush in one hand and a large pink ribbon in the other.

"Mr. Kitty-face, yous is to be laying down on the floor right here," the creature pointed to a spot on the area rug in front of the fireplace. "and be letting Bobbin brush out yous fur."

Xander turned his head and gave him a truly pathetic look.

=Gambit, make him stop! Tell him to use my name and not call me Mr. Kitty-face. And I don't wanna be brushed out and tied up in bows!=

Gambit blinked twice and then collapsed on the nearest chair in hysterical laughter.

=Not funny. So very not funny.=

The two house elves exchanged a look before turning wide startled eyes on Gambit. Bobbin reached out and gave the other elf a gentle little push closer to the giggling mutant.

"Sir?" A squeaky voice asked. "Is yous being okay, sir?"

Gambit nodded and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.

"Oui, Gambit fine, just…" Another brief giggle.

"De chat's name be Xander, not Mr. Kitty-face. An' Xander don' want t' have bows an' ribbons tied in his fur."

The house elf with the brush and ribbon sighed dejectedly and the pink ribbon disappeared with a crack. Xander seemed to relax a bit and melted away from the corner a little.

The little elf closest to him sidled even closer and pointed to his own chest. "I's being Toppin," and then pointed at the sad elf with the horse brush. "and that elf's being Bobbin."

Gambit smiled at the little creature.

"I be Remy LeBeau, but everyone calls me Gambit." He pointed at his furry friend. "And that is Xander."

**

* * *

**

52 – Staff Meeting

"Muggles." The tall man with the greasy hair and bad teeth sneered, "Lovely."

"Severus, please." The Headmaster gave him a pointed look even as the four sliders bristled a bit. Methos just met the man's gaze with a flat stare of dislike.

=I'd offer to bite him, but he'd probably give me indigestion.=

Gambit snorted and grinned.

"*Gambit don' doubt that for a minute. An' there ain't enough Maalox in de world t' make that one worth de bad taste, heh?*"

Just then another woman walked in and Xander's attention snapped to her in an instant, the ugly man in the corner forgotten. Gambit studied her, she seemed to be an older woman and in fairly good shape, but her face didn't seem to be made for smiling. In fact, a small frown pinched her lips even as she gazed around the room.

"Ah, Minerva. Please have a seat. I'd like to introduce our visitors to everyone. They have quite an interesting tale to tell. I think you will all find it as fascinating, as I do."

Once she was seated, the old wizard stood and his blue eyes twinkled brightly. Gambit felt several sweeps of pressure and thought press against his psi-shields. A light touch that he recognized as Albus and another harder and colder touch that he didn't recognize at all.

Then Albus spent several moments introducing everyone. Gambit tried to take note of everyone's name and face, but to be honest there were too many and their names and titles too bizarre. He figured that if it came down to it, every one of them would answer to a simple call of "Professor" and a smile.

A few names he tried to make stick in his head though, for various reasons. Aurora Sinistra was a lovely and quite curvy young woman, Severus Snape was a mean and angry man who had already gotten on Methos' bad side and Minerva McGonagall had, for some reason, snagged Xander's attention tightly. He would have to find out a bit about those people that his friends were interested in, but for now…he smiled over at Aurora and winked at her over his sunglasses. She blushed and tried to stifle her giggles.

A quick glare and a hastily cleared throat from Minerva ended his little spot of flirting for the moment, but that was okay. Contact was established.

The introductions on their side of things went just as fast, if not as smooth. The ugly sneering man that Methos was trying to decapitate with his eyes was less than helpful and his comments were often very rude. Gambit merely hoped that Methos remembered that they needed these people's help and didn't kill the ass.

When the conversation turned to Quinn's invention of the gizmo that opened up wormholes between dimensions, the man flat out called him a liar and insisted that "muggles" couldn't do such things. Wade, of course, leapt to her lover's defense and made a few comments about how Severus' lack of intelligence and understanding was not enough to actually alter the truth of the situation.

Things deteriorated from there.

=Gambit.=

"*Heh?*"

He turned to look over at Xander only to find Xander still staring at the older woman with the stern frown.

=I think she's a cat.=

Gambit blinked in surprise. He looked at the woman again. "*Heh? Homme, she look like a woman t' Gambit.*"

=I know. It doesn't make sense to me either. My eyes tell me she's human, but everything else just screams cat to me.=

Tilting his head, Gambit considered it and figured that maybe it was a magic thing. Plus, it didn't matter too much if he sounded like an insane kook, he was actually used to that by now.

"Eh,…pardon moi, but…Xander say that y' be a cat."

The woman, Minerva McGonagall if he remembered correctly, turned to look at him in astonishment, blinked once and then looked over at Xander in surprise. Then she smiled. It transformed her face greatly, revealing the stunning beauty that she had once been.

"Why yes, I am."

And with that said, she stood up, concentrated briefly and then seemed to melt down into a small pretty little tabby-cat. With one large jump, she leapt onto the conference table and turned to face Xander, tiny little nose to great big nose. Xander began to purr so loudly that the windows rattled in their panes.

=Oooo! Super cool!=

Xander's purr cut off midstream from the shock. =Professor?=

The purr started up again, much louder than before.

=Gambit!= Xander's voice was shouted in his head so strongly that he rocked in his chair. =She can understand me and I can understand her!=

**

* * *

**

53 – Magic verses Science

Breakfast in the Great Hall was an interesting experience, to say the least.

Their brief introduction to the students had gone fairly well, although Xander was a big topic for conversation among them. He was currently sandwiched between Minerva and a giant of a man named Hagrid who was absolutely fascinated with the horse sized cat. Severus was still being an ass, of course, and they were all trying to avoid the blonde idiot who seemed to be in love with himself, but everyone seemed to be okay about all the weirdness around them.

Gambit glanced at the strained expression on Quinn's face as the young man poked tentatively at his plate. Well, almost everyone was okay with it.

"S'matter, homme?"

Quinn grimaced.

"We went to a world that claimed to use magic for everything before. It turned out to be fake, though. We were almost killed there because of it."

Gambit nodded.

"From what Gambit understand…a person needs t' have de gift t' use real magic. It's a talent y' born wit'. If'n y' don' have de gift, then there is only so much magic y' can actually do. Can't imagine a whole world of magic users."

Quinn frowned, and then waved a hand about to include the castle. "Then, what do you call all this?"

"A small fragment of de population." Gambit tilted his head to the side and grinned. "Y' heard de old man y'self. He could've sent us t' de muggle part of de world, which I'm bettin' is a lot like y' world; all technology an' logic an' science. This entire planet, or reality, or whatever y' call it ain't all magic. Only de small part we're seeing now."

Quinn's frown turned thoughtful even though he still seemed to be a bit upset. "I guess." He sighed.

"I still don't understand it. I mean, I was very open minded and willing to accept magic in that other world, the one that was full of charlatans. I don't know if I'm willing to do that again. Then I look around and see everything that's going on here and I can't help but try to figure out how to do it with technology."

"Gambit has no doubts that y' could duplicate all of this," his hand waved, taking in the entire castle, "wit' tech an' gadgets given enough time. That doesn't mean that it can't be done wit' magic too. I've seen magic, I've used it. I know that it's real an' that it works."

Quinn seemed to mull that over a bit and Gambit took the time to eat some of the delicious food on offer. He'd spent too much time eating stale food scrounged out of the ruins in zombie-world to pass up a good hot meal.

"So…what is magic?"

Gambit blinked, chewed, and considered the question.

"Energy."

That comment had Quinn's eyebrow up in his hairline.

"It's energy, homme. Don' know where it comes from. Could be that dark-energy stuff they say is in outer space between de stars an' pushin' the galaxies apart. Could be energy generated from just bein' alive an' havin' a soul. Don' know. Just…is. What's more, people wit' de gift can manipulate it wit' their minds. Gambit can' do it. Y' can' do it. Met people that could, though."

Quinn sighed and nodded, but Gambit could tell that he wasn't very happy with the answer.

"Y' should talk t' de old man." A questioning look. "De Headmaster. Bet he could tell y' more about de nature of magic. On de other hand, he'll pro'lly pick y' brain about quantum physics, so that's fair, heh?"

Quinn snorted and grinned. Still not a happy smile, but it was a little better. Gambit beamed at him and then dug back into his eggs.

**

* * *

**

54 – Curses Unveiled

Gambit had been sitting off to the side watching the magical healer, Madam Pomfrey and the Headmaster fuss over Xander for quite a while when Methos was escorted into the medical wing by one of the elf-things.

"Thank you, Bindi. I'll be fine here, but I'll call you if I need you again. Okay?"

The little house elf beamed at the immortal and bounced from foot-to-foot as if it had to pee really badly.

"Yes, Sir Mr. Knight Sir. Bindi will bees listening really hard for yous call, Sir."

Then, with a snap of long fingers, the house elf disappeared in a flash of light and a loud crack of noise.

Gambit smirked at his friend.

"Sir Mr. Knight Sir?"

Methos frowned, then smirked back.

"I wouldn't talk if I was you, Mr. Pretty-fire-eyes."

Gambit rolled his, indeed, fire-like red on black eyes at the appellation the little creatures had bestowed upon him. The only saving grace it had was being less stupid than the name Mr. Kitty-face which Xander had been labeled with.

"So…what's going on? They able to figure out anything?"

Gambit turned his head to watch the healer lady cast a few more spells with her wand.

"Not sure. They believe he was hit wit' a dark transfiguration. Its dark 'cause it's against de victim's will an' consent. Normally fairly simple t' break, but 'cause Xander be an anchor an' not a normal person it went wrong. Also, I think de virus did something weird an' effected de curse as much as Xander. They're still tryin' t' figure it all out."

Methos frowned and nodded at the scene. "We downloaded everything we learned on the virus and Xander's condition onto a series of CD's. I don't know how much good it'll do us since they don't have computers here…"

Gambit tilted his head and considered it. "Well…if they can get us t' a non-magical part of de country, Gambit can get y' into any buildin' wit' computers t' use. Might want t' try a library at a University first though. Y' can always print it all out t' bring back."

Methos nodded absentmindedly, a thoughtful look on his face. "How in the world did a virus affect a curse?"

"No clue, homme."

They watched in silence for a moment.

"So…you think that Professor lady could teach him to shift from a human to a cat and back again?"

"Don' know. If they can' break de curse, that'd be de next best thing though, heh?"

"Yeah."

Methos sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I should go tell them what I know about the Progenitor Virus and offer to print out all of our data. It might help."

Gambit nodded and watched Methos walk over to the healer, smile and begin to talk. His eyes shifted back to Xander. The psi-link between them fairly hummed with a renewed sense of almost desperate hope. Gambit grinned even as he mentally crossed his fingers and prayed that these folks could help his friend.

**

* * *

**

55 – Arguments

Quinn and Professor Arturo leapt at the chance to go to the non-magical portions of the reality they found themselves in. In fact, neither of them felt very comfortable nor welcome at Hogwarts. The Professor had, apparently, been accosted by several of the students and been subjected to a bit of harassment over his lack of magical ability. The fact that one of the teachers, that tall dark-haired jerk Severus, had stood in the shadows smirking the entire time didn't endear the school to him one bit.

When it had been suggested that some of them go into the Muggle World and print out the information they had on the Progenitor Virus, a loud and heated debate erupted. Gambit had the feeling that the old wizard, Albus, had been very distressed that his school, students, teachers and in fact, his very world was being disparaged so strongly.

"Look," Quinn's loud voice cut through the arguing, "we only have two more days on the timer until we can get out of this loony-bin."

A quick glance at Albus, "No offense."

Albus twinkled mildly back and gestured for him to continue.

"We have two choices here. One; we can get this information for them and hope they can cure Xander and then open the wormhole from here. Or two; we can leave the castle and wait for the timer to run down in the non-magical world. Preferably London."

"You are all more than welcome to stay, I assure you. There is plenty of room and we hope to be able to help the young man regain his true form." Albus gestured to Xander.

"I hear you, but" Rembrandt said. "I don't think it's safe for us to stay here. We're pretty much dependant on those…creature things to do anything. Even turn on the lights. And your students have already begun to make it clear we aren't wanted. How soon until it goes from insults to actions?"

Albus sighed, looking tired and old. "I am truly sorry about that. I really had hoped that the students would have known better than to be so…rude."

Gambit snorted.

"It wouldn't be so bad," Methos' voice was cold, "if it weren't for the fact that Snape stood there sneering instead of stopping them. He obviously can't be trusted to keep the more…radical of your students in line."

"I'll talk to Severus."

Whatever else Albus might have said was cut off by a nasty barked laugh from Methos. "You do that…or I will. I can assure you he won't like anything I have to say to or about him."

=Gambit…I don't want to leave. I'm sorry, but if they can help I don't want to loose that chance.= A flash of guilt mixed with hope rushed across the psi-link. =Even if it means missing the wormhole in two days.=

Gambit sighed and slumped back in his chair. This was a tough situation. He didn't know what would happen to the psi-link or either of their minds if they ended up in two separate dimensions. The link could break and reestablish itself with another like it had for Xander when he fell through the portal on his original world. Then again, it could strip both of their minds of all memories and thoughts.

So, he could either stay here with Xander no matter what the Sliders decided or he could force the cat to go with them.

He didn't particularly like this world, but he didn't hate it either. Zombie-world had been a total bust true, but this place wasn't that bad. Granted, he didn't like that the elf-creature following him around had to do even the simplest of tasks for him, but…could he really make Xander give up this chance to be human again?

"Xander says he wants t' stay. He wants t' try an' cure his curse an' be human again."

All eyes swung his way and Gambit pulled out his last pack of cards and began to shuffle them.

"Gambit will stay wit' him. These people might be his only hope."

Wade's eyes were tragic. "You'll be stuck here."

"No. We won't." Methos grinned and nodded towards Xander. "Xander developed a spell that can open magical portals to other dimensions. He can't cast it himself, being an anchor instead of a witch, but I'm sure we could find someone here to cast it for us."

Gambit beamed at Methos' obvious choice to stay with them and Xander purred loudly.

=No problem. I remember it all and we can write it up again. Heck, they might even be able to help improve it.=

"*True. Very true.*"

Quinn frowned, he didn't have faith in magic despite all of the things he had seen in this castle and he didn't really like the idea of leaving the three behind. "Okay. Fine. We'll go to the non-magic world, print out those documents and then you can come back to the castle here. We," he gestured to Wade, Rembrandt and Professor Arturo, "will stay in London until the slide. We'll wait for you incase you change your minds and want to leave with us."

**

* * *

**

56 – Moping

It had looked like a small wooden hoola-hoop. The old wizard had waved his wand a bit, tapped the hoola-hoop once and said a strange word. It had sounded something like portal or portus or portly. Whatever. It had made the wooden hoop glow however.

He had handed it to Methos. Then Quinn and the Sliders had grabbed hold. One of the professors, a witch called Vector, had also grabbed hold of the hoop. Then Vector did something or said something, because there had been a flash of light and a swirling rush of air and then they were gone.

Gambit had been assured that portkeys were perfectly safe. Albus promised that the group of people would arrive safely and quickly in London. Professor Vector would be able to use the hoop to bring Methos back safe and sound. Minerva had promised that it would be okay and that the portkey had worked perfectly.

Gambit was willing to adopt a 'wait and see' policy. He didn't want to cause much of a fuss; they were trying to help Xander after all. Still, if the portkey didn't return with a healthy Methos like promised, Gambit planned to blow the Great Hall sky high.

=Do you think it'll work?=

"*It better, heh? De old man promised that de hoola-hoop would be better an' faster than a car. Gambit thought that poor Quinn's head would explode hearing that.*"

Xander looked at him, a wash of confusion over the psi-link.

=Not that.= A huffy sigh and then the huge cat flopped down on the floor next to Gambit's chair. They were nearly eye-to-eye that way. =I meant, do you think that having the information on the virus will help them to find a way to remove the curse?=

Gambit scratched his chin and looked up at the ceiling considering it. "*Don' know. If de virus mutated de curse, then it might not be fixable. Then again, maybe it just mean that they have t' change de cure to match de mutation.*"

=They were talking about calling in a professional curse breaker. I guess with the virus and the mutation and all that stuff that it's not just your regular average curse. The school nurse is really good about reversing minor hexes, jinxes and stuff. Which makes sense if you think about it. Castle full of teenagers with rampaging hormones, more magical power than common sense, and a political schism a mile wide to divide them and the only real consequence is detention? Heck, I'd have cursed all the bullies to the Hellmouth and back if I were a student here.=

"*Good point. Gambit would've been tempted t' turn a few of these lil' snots blue or purple or somethin' himself.*"

He reached out and ran a soothing hand down Xander's furry neck.

"*Guess y' just special. Have de superpower curse, not just some lil' schoolboy hex.*"

=Swell.=

Twin deep felt sighs echoed through the room.

"*Kinda worried 'bout de others, too.*"

=Huh? Why? They'll be fine.=

Gambit shrugged and shifted in his chair.

"*I know. Just…I know Methos'll be okay. As long as de magic hoola-hoop don' turn him inside out or nothin'. The others…I worry 'bout them. Rembrandt be their only fighter an' he's not viscous enough or trained enough.*"

=You worry too much. They'll be fine. Rembrandt's a good fighter and so is Quinn. And don't underestimate Wade. Plus I think that Arturo can keep them out of most messes. He's got a good head on his shoulders.=

"*Maybe…*"

**

* * *

**

57 – Spying on Death

Gambit watched Aurora Sinistra's shapely backside shift and sway as she made her way down the stone corridor. She was a little bit older than he usually liked, and somewhat less physically active than he was used too. She wasn't cute, or gorgeous, or conventionally beautiful. She was…statuesque. Stately. Aloof.

Currently, she was driving him insane with her Victorian manners and her shy flirtations. He was also pretty sure that he was the man her momma warned her about.

"…brother Bill normally works as a curse breaker for Gringotts. He just finished an assignment, so they pulled him back to England and sent him here. I guess he's supposed to help out Madam Pomfrey with the cat. I guess the cat is really a person that's been cursed. I hope that I can…"

Gambit turned away from the mesmerizing view of Sinistra's bottom and saw a bunch of children swirling past him to make their way to their next class. His eyes caught sight of three students in particular. A taller boy with bright orange hair stood between a shorter dark haired boy and a girl with large teeth and frizzy hair. He was babbling on about his brother the curse breaker as they turned the corner and wandered off.

Speaking of curses and those that break them, he was supposed to meet Xander in the infirmary this afternoon to act as interpreter. Vaguely, he wondered what time it was.

That's when he saw Methos.

He was about to call out to the immortal to ask the time and see if he wanted to meet the curse breaker when he arrived, but something stopped him. Instead, he watched with narrowed eyes as the older man stalked down the hall, stopped at the corner and then ducked his head around quickly before pulling back. A heartbeat and then the immortal slinked around the corner and skulked in the shadows. Gambit wouldn't have even been able to see him if it hadn't been for his mutant eyesight.

"What in de world is de old man up to?"

No one answered his whispered question, so Gambit decided it was up to him to find out. Methos may have millennia of hunting and stalking prey on his side, but Gambit was a Master Thief, the nominal Head of the entire New Orleans Thieves' Guild. He'd give up his right to carry his bo and wear his colors if he couldn't step into the shadows and follow his mark unseen.

Methos led him on a merry chase. They wandered along stone corridors, down several flights of steps and through several archways that were magical in nature. Always down deeper and deeper into the bowels of the school. Windows disappeared and torches lit the corridors instead of the sweeter smokeless candles found in the upper levels. Shadows danced and twisted and still Gambit stalked Methos…who was apparently stalking the tall greasy jerk known as Severus Snape.

Gambit hadn't had this much fun in a long while.

He was creeping along a dimly lit stone corridor when he heard the loud thump. One eyebrow arched up, he slid soundlessly around the corner and melted into the deep dark shadows of a crudely carved stone pillar. Further down the hall, in the bright circle of light cast by a flickering torch, Gambit saw Methos.

The ancient immortal had Severus pushed up tightly against the damp stone wall, his gleaming broadsword pressed tight to the jerk's neck. Severus held up better than Gambit would have expected. He was pale and his eyes were wide, but his mouth was twisted into a sneer and he wasn't trembling or begging.

Gambit hated to admit it, but he was impressed. Methos could be one intimidating bastard when he wanted to be.

"You will reign in your little snakes immediately. They upset the others to the point where they left this miserable castle, but it won't work on the rest of us. Reign them in…for their own sake." Methos' voice hissed with anger. "If you don't and they continue to verbally or magically attack one of mine, I will retaliate. On. You."

There was a look in Methos' eyes and it was one that Gambit had only seen once or twice, but that had been more than enough. It was the look that said that the immortal was already visualizing your decapitated head being mounted on a spike.

Then Methos pushed Severus down and away. The immortal shifted back, melted into the shadows and disappeared around the far corner before the Head of Slytherin House had managed to roll back up to his feet. Gambit smirked.

Grinning like a loon, he figured that it would be best to head to the infirmary and tell Xander all about Methos' little promise to the big greasy jerk. His cat would enjoy the story. Plus it might take his mind off of the worries about removing his curse, at least for a little while.

Turning, Gambit started to step out of his hiding spot when he saw two glowing green eyes peering out at him from the deepest shadows across the corridor. He blinked, his own eyes burning like twin fires in the dark.

A small boy with dark hair, glasses, and crimson lining on his cloak stepped out of the shadows. Those green eyes, glowing with power, shifted to peer down the corridor at the still ruffled Severus Snape before turning to look back at Gambit.

Then the boy smirked.

Grinning, Gambit winked at the boy and then melted back into the shadows and drifted away back down the corridor. Yep, the day was definitely looking up.

**

* * *

**

58 – Misunderstood Beasties

"…Aragog really is jus' a harmless creature. Don't un'erstand why he upsets people so. His children are a might touchy, but y' jus' have t' know the right way t' talk t' 'em."

=Gambit? Is he insane? 'Cause those giant spiders were way creepy and I'm pretty sure they're demonic in nature.=

"*Oui, think he just might be a bit touched in de head.*"

Xander snorted and stepped over a huge deadfall that the rest of them had to scramble over.

=A bit? Try a lot…=

When Hagrid had invited them to spend the day outside the castle seeing the grounds, forests and all the animals that lived there, all three of them had jumped at the chance. Not that the castle wasn't interesting or that most of the people weren't friendly. It was just that they had been cooped up for far too long and they each needed some fresh air and to stretch their legs.

Too bad their tour guide was an insane half-giant that thought giant demon spiders made great neighbors. Xander freaking out at the thought of baby demon spiders hatching in his fur hadn't helped keep things calm during the meeting. Methos assuring everyone that spider guts washed out better than zombie guts probably didn't help either.

"Hagrid…" Methos was trying to soothe the agitated man in his own not so soothing way, "is there any creature here that isn't categorized as a demonic, human-killing, flesh eating, horror?"

Hagrid's hurt look proved that Methos hadn't been as soothing or as diplomatic as he could have been.

They all turned the corner on the path and found the edge of the Forbidden Forest gave way to a wide open field that held a long wooden fence corral around a large barn. Which was fine except that the field was filled with large winged black horses that were skeletally thin and covered in reptilian scales. Their eyes were milky white and their mouths were filled with sharp edged teeth.

Methos and Gambit shared a long look.

"'parently not, homme."

=Flying demon horses?= Xander looked over his shoulder at the other two, a low growl in his throat. =As if bird shit wasn't bad enough, imagine what these things could do to the paint job of your truck.=

Gambit snorted and elbowed Methos.

"Xander says that de flying demon horses would mess up y' paint job worse 'n bird shit."

Methos paused, thought about it and then barked out a loud laugh. "Gods…you two are twisted."

"Wha's so funny?"

Methos glanced back at Hagrid, shrugged and simply pointed to the corral with the winged and scaled horses.

"Y' can see 'em, huh?" Hagrid nodded and grimaced. "Them's thestrals an' most people can't see 'em. Invisible they are. Only those that can truly un'erstand death can see 'em."

Gambit pushed his sunglasses up on his head and nodded. "Don' worry, homme. All three of us can see them just fine."

Hagrid hesitated and then sighed. "Sorry t' hear that."

They all nodded and just watched the thestrals in silence for a while.

**

* * *

**

59 – The Crush

"*Xander!*"

Gambit shifted away some more and felt his back hit the stone wall. The blonde idiot shifted with him and reached out with one arm to press his hand against the wall next to Gambit's head. The scent of lavender and vanilla swirled together in a cloud of fragrance wafting off the man. Gleaming white teeth flashed a huge smile as the idiot leaned in closer.

"Please, call me Gilderoy. After all, I'm sure we're going to be great friends."

The man leered and pressed his body close to Gambit's. Gambit tried to lean back and away, but the wall stopped him from escaping. Gambit could beat the man to a pulp, but after Methos' little temper-tantrum and his threats to Snape, they'd had to promise the old wizard that ran the school that they wouldn't break, mutilate or kill his staff.

"*Xander! Help!*"

Reaching up with his other hand, the DADA Professor tugged on a lock of Gambit's hair, twirling it around his fingers.

"You've got such pretty hair, interesting eyes, and…" the man leered down the length of Gambit's body and chuckled, "such a gorgeous body. Oh, the things I could do to you…"

Gilderoy pressed up against Gambit. Something hot and hard shifted against Gambit's thigh.

Eyes flaring brightly with mild panic, Gambit pulled out his collapsed bo staff and prepared to telescope it to full extension. Promise or not, this guy was getting a beating. Then, out of nowhere and accompanied by much growling and a roar of rage, a huge horse sized panther leapt down off of the stairway landing from a higher level and crashed into Gilderoy, knocking him from his feet.

"Mr. Harris!" Professor McGonagall was running right behind him.

Xander ignored her and placed himself between Gambit and Gilderoy. He crouched down, bared his huge fangs and growled and hissed. His fur all stood up on end, fluffed up in absolute anger.

For his part, Gilderoy screamed like a little girl, scrambled back away and then tried to regain his dignity by wrapping his cloak around himself to hide his now soaked and stained pants. Climbing to his feet, he tried to push his hair out of his face and smiled ingratiatingly and not a little gratefully at McGonagall.

"P-p-p Professor!"

"What is going on here?"

Gilderoy smiled his best award winning smile. "I was just helping the poor man out. He got lost, you see. I was just trying to help him find his way."

Gambit snorted and slipped around Xander's bulk to stand by the witch Xander liked so much.

"Bull." Gambit pointed at Gilderoy and grimaced. "He don' take no for an answer. That's de problem. Gambit tell him no, he didn't want t' get naked an' do things wit' him."

McGonagall's eyes got wide even as the psi-link flooded with shock followed by even more anger.

"Gilderoy don' want t' hear that, so he try t' insist. Push Gambit against de wall an'…" Gambit shuddered, "touched him."

"What!" The witch's face went red, then pale, then red again.

"It's a good thing y' two show up when y' did. Gambit had just pulled out his bo staff an' was about t' break de promise he make t' Albus about not killin' his teachers."

=He was going to rape you because he thought you wouldn't fight back!?!=

With a roar of rage that echoed off of the stone walls, Xander leapt at Gilderoy. Gilderoy fainted before he had a chance to realize that Professor McGonagall's fast wand work had saved his life.

**

* * *

**

60 – Luna Lovegood

The three of them were sitting in the courtyard enjoying the last of the warm weather. Well, Methos and Xander were enjoying it. Gambit was already cold, southern boy that he was. According to their host, the snow would fly soon. He was not looking forward to a Scottish winter.

=So, it doesn't look like Bill will be able to help much…=

Xander was depressed. Big time.

Even though the blonde buffoon had gotten taken to task for his behavior with Gambit and the meaning of the word 'no', he was still teaching and still staring at Gambit with wide eyes and longing sighs. It was creepy, but as long as he stayed away, it was livable.

Gambit, Methos and Xander had all been reminded of their promise and they reassured Albus that as long as Gilderoy kept his hands to himself that he wouldn't get beaten up, blown to pieces or eaten by a large angry cat.

That was a minor irritation though compared to the fact that the curse breaker, one Bill Weasley, had examined Xander and announced that breaking the curse could be done, but it would be dangerous and it would have unpredictable side-effects because of the mutating virus.

"*Depends…he says he can lift de curse. Y' just gotta risk de unknown side-effects.*"

Gambit shifted and poked the immortal in the arm.

"What d' y' think? Should Xander try t' have Bill remove de curse?"

Methos reached up and rubbed at the back of his own head and grimaced.

"It's a tricky situation, to be sure. It would be easier to say if Bill could tell us what the side-effects would be. It could be something as simple as he lifts the curse and Xander stays a cat. Or it could be that he lifts the curse, Xander shifts back to human and the virus runs rampant though his system doing only God knows what to him."

=Or, I could turn into a talking purple duck with orange and green polk-a-dots.=

Gambit snorted.

"Or, you could just go to Professor McGonagall and ask her to teach you how to use magic to shift yourself between feline and human forms," a soft voice said.

All three of them turned to see a tiny little girl with long blonde hair, buggy gray eyes and a dreamy smile on her face. She stared intently at the air over Methos' left shoulder.

"I'm Luna Lovegood."

Gambit smiled gently at the little girl. "It's nice t' meet y' Luna. I be Gambit, this is Methos an' de great chat noir is Xander."

Luna turned her head and stared directly into Gambit's eyes. Her focus was incredibly intense and it was sorta creepy.

"I know. The nargles told me."

Then her eyes drifted away and she seemed to stare at nothing. Methos and Gambit exchanged looks and shrugged in confusion at each other. Luna walked over to them, and ignoring the two men, she stopped right in front of Xander and looked up at him even as the big cat tilted his head to look down at her. She reached up and ran one hand gently along his furry cheek.

"Yes, that would work out well. After all, you are a humanimagus." She tilted her head slightly and stared at Xander. "A handsome one, too."

And with that, she smiled up at him, winked, then turned and skipped off across the courtyard.

"What de hell?"

"I have no idea. Strange little girl, though."

Xander purred loudly. =I like her. She thinks I'm handsome.=


	7. GMX VII

_**The Adventures of Gambit, Methos and a cursed one-eyed cat named Xander **_

Genre: crossover, series of related ficlets  
Characters: Gambit (X-Men), Methos (Highlander) and Xander (Buffy)  
Rating: R (to be safe - each ficlet varies)  
Disclaimer: I don't own any character from any of the various fandoms. I'm not making $ from this.  
Summary: Gambit's life takes a turn for the surreal. Then stuff happens.

**

* * *

**

61 – Halloween

"*Xander, come on outta there, mon chat.*"

=No.=

Xander lay curled up on the huge nest of pillows, blankets and other fluff filled things that he used as a bed. Currently, he was wrapped partially around a huge life size teddy bear and had his big furry head stuffed under a green velvet blanket.

"*This be ridiculous. De day is not cursed. Evil things won't happen just 'cause it's Halloween.*"

=Is too cursed!= Xander huffed and burrowed further into his next of blankets. =What with the chaos costumes, fear demons, hyper-active kids on sugar rushes and cranky old ladies handing out toothbrushes.=

Gambit blinked at that last one, assumed he'd never understand and shook his head.

"*Don' make me tell Methos on you.*" Gambit smirked and tugged lightly on his friend's long tail. "*Y' know he'd swat y' on your furry behind wit' that big ol' sword of his an' tell y' t' get outta bed.*"

=You don't understand. Halloween is supposed to be the one day that everyone can relax and enjoy themselves. Demons and vamps think the whole concept is tacky, so they generally stay home and try not look outside at all the dumb humans dressed up like demons and vamps, ya know?=

Gambit nodded, not too sure if he followed that bit of logic, but he was willing to try.

=But it never worked out that way. Every year something messed up happened to the group I was with.= A big sigh fluttered the blanket around his head. =The first year was the worst. That was the year we rented cursed costumes. Even now, years later, Willow will still occasionally touch something to test it and see if she'll slip through it.=

"*Heh? Why de hell she think she'd slip through somethin'?*" Gambit's mind briefly filled with an image of Kitty Pryde.

=Her costume was a ghost, so when the curse kicked in she spent several hours as a ghost. She couldn't touch anything or anyone. She just…slipped through stuff.=

"*Damn…what did y' go as?*"

=Soldier. Spent the night shooting demons and vamps, which is of the good. Lifelong nightmares about the war in Vietnam and Cambodia, not so much.=

"*That won't happen tonight. Promise. Albus won't let anyone curse y' an' if they try anyway, y' know that Gambit an' Methos will take 'em apart in painful messy ways.*"

A despondent sigh was all he heard from under the velvet blanket. Rolling his eyes, Gambit climbed up onto the pile of pillows, reached out for the edge of the blanket Xander was hiding under and yanked it off.

He stared. He blinked his eyes rapidly to see if the vision before him would change. It didn't. He stared some more.

=Told ya Halloween was evil…=

Xander laid there, embarrassment drifting in waves over the psi-link as he looked over at Gambit with a pathetic expression on his furry face. Someone had managed to get a big ruffled collar around Xander's neck. It was bright orange and had streamers of ribbons, fluffy bits of chiffon and a few tiny little silver bells on it.

Xander nudged a tangled and slobber coated length of bright orange ribbon over towards Gambit and sheepishly said, =I managed to get the big bow off of the end of my tail, but…the collar is sorta stuck.=

Gambit had to clamp down very very hard on the urge to smirk and laugh at his friend.

"*Bobbin?*"

A deep heartfelt sigh.

=Yeah…=

**

* * *

**

62 – Post Feast

Gambit could clearly feel Xander's mix of embarrassment and annoyance. Everyone seemed to like the collar that had been magic'd onto his neck. They kept saying how festive he looked. Only the fact that he'd been served a triple helping of salmon had prevented a giant sized hissy-fit.

Methos was also a bit frustrated and annoyed. Hundreds of shouting, laughing and sugar crazed magical children was fine in theory, or if inflicted upon someone else. Having to sit in the same room with said children was a completely different thing. Methos wanted quiet. He wanted calm. He wanted to get the heck out of the Great Hall.

Gambit, on the other hand, had barely noticed the children or the food. He'd been far too busy purring and cooing into the lovely ear of the sweet Aurora Sinistra. Happily, she had purred and cooed right back.

There was very little that they could do in a room full of children though, so she had suggested that they meet in private up in the Astronomy Tower. She had an extensive set of private rooms there. Gambit was more than willing to agree. They would meet in one hour and hopefully they could add kissing and petting to the purring and cooing.

When he mentioned this assignation to Xander and Methos, they both leapt on the excuse of 'helping him get ready for his date' to escape the Great Hall and all of the sugar laden children within. Gambit knew better; Methos was going to end up reading another dusty tome the size of the New York phonebook and Xander was going to threaten to eat Bobbin if he didn't remove the hated collar. He didn't care though, he was far too happy to argue.

They were halfway to their suite of rooms and Gambit had mentally undressed Aurora three times when Xander came to a complete halt, fluffed the fur up along his ruff and back and hissed at the bare stone wall.

"What the…" Methos shot him a confused look even as he drew his sword.

Gambit could only shrug and pull out his bo staff. A quick flick of the wrist telescoped it to full length.

=Demon in the walls!=

Xander's mental shout rocked Gambit on his feet even as the giant cat sprung up the stairs in two bounds and dashed down a dark hallway. Gambit and Methos scrambled to follow him.

"Demon!? Xander wait! What demon?"

Methos stumbled for a second at Gambit's confused shout and then put on another burst of speed to try and keep up. They pelted up the stairs, around the corner and down the hall. They finally caught up to Xander only to see him staring in horror at the old caretaker's cat, Mrs. Norris. She was strung up by her tail from a wall sconce.

"Mon Dieu!"

Across the way, three children; two boys and one girl, stared at the cat as well. The two groups looked at each other and then back at Mrs. Norris. The children looked terrified.

"I didn't…" the dark haired one with the glasses sputtered, "we didn't…it was the thing…"

Gambit nodded and stepped around Xander to pet his shivering and trembling shoulder.

"Oui…Xander heard something. Said it was a demon. In de walls."

The dark haired boy with glasses grimaced and nodded in agreement. "Yeah."

**

* * *

**

63 – Confessions

The caretaker, Argus Filch, was in hysterics over his beloved cat. He flip-flopped between accusing the boy, Harry Potter, and bemoaning Mrs. Norris' fate.

Xander was little better. Despite their relative size difference, he kept trying to climb inside of Gambit's trench coat with him and tuck his huge face up under Gambit's hair.

=A cat killer is on the loose! Oh God, he's gonna come after me and turn me into a giant stone cat statue and then kids will climb all over me and birds will poop on my head…=

"*Xander!*"

Panic and horror bubbled over the psi-link.

=…or, oh God, even worse those thestral demon-horse things will fly over me and they'll poop on my head and no one will stop that evil little elf Bobbin from tying ribbons in my fur and it'll be so horrible...=

Gambit wiggled around and grabbed a hold of Xander's furry head and pressed their foreheads together.

"*Xander!*"

=…and we just gotta find this demon. I mean, there's evil and then there's super duper evil and being a cat killer is just the evilest evil that ever was…=

"*XANDER!*"

Xander stopped babbling in panic inside of Gambit's head and blinked at him.

"*Gambit is not goin' t' let some two-bit demon turn y' into a statue.*" He projected calm and soothing thoughts as best he could. "*Y' need t' calm down an' tell me what y' heard so I can tell de old wizard. D'accord?*"

=It was big. Huge. I could hear it slithering. Like scales on stone or metal. It was moving behind the walls.=

"Xander says," Gambit began. Everyone stopped and turned to look at them, "that he could hear de demon movin' in de walls. It be a big one too. He thinks it got scales. Could hear them slidin' over stone an' metal."

Severus snorted in blatant disbelief, but the other's seemed to take Gambit and Xander's words more seriously.

"Demon?" Minerva McGonagall paled and shifted uneasily. "You mean, some sort of monster?"

Gambit nodded his head. "Oui, Professor."

"It talked."

Everyone's head whipped around to stare at Harry Potter. The boy's face was a pale shock under his jet black hair. He paled further and stepped back at everyone's regard.

"I…I heard it. It was talking about blood…and killing."

Everyone tried to talk at once, but Albus held up one hand and called out, "Silence!"

"What about you, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger, did either of you hear anything?"

They both shook their heads no even as the girl spoke up, "No Sir. Harry said he heard a voice. We followed him as he tracked it through the walls."

One bushy white eyebrow went up and he turned to face Gambit and Xander. "Did either of you hear a voice speaking?"

=No, no voices or words.= Xander stilled and replayed the memory in his head. Gambit caught parts of it and felt a bit dizzy as they didn't match up to his own memories at all. =Hissing. I heard hissing and sliding scales. Like a giant snake demon.=

Fear shivered down the psi-link. =Please, please, please don't let it be a giant snake demon. I don't want to blow up another school.=

Gambit ignored the part about blowing up the school. He could get details on that later. Instead he turned to the others and grimaced.

"Xander say that he heard hissing. He thinks it's a giant snake demon. Hissing an' scales slidin' on stone."

A pause, then Harry's voice spoke very softly, "I can talk to snakes. And they can talk to me. Maybe it was a giant snake monster."

The room got so quiet so fast that Gambit could have heard a pin drop. It lasted for a heartbeat and then the red-haired boy exploded.

"You're a parselmouth?" A brief pause. "Bloody Hell!"

**

* * *

**

64 – Research Party Redux

"What in the name of Merlin is that, that…thing doing in my library?!"

Madam Pince was not best pleased if her scrunched up face was any indication. Gambit looked around in curiosity, spotted the tall sour Potions Master over in a dark corner and sighed in false sympathy.

"Gambit has no clue. Since he be a professor, Sev'rus pro'lly thinks he can just come in here an' stink up de place. Gambit thinks that de Headmaster should fire de man an' kick him t' de curb," he shrugged eloquently, "but what can y' do?"

Methos snickered quietly next to him and reached up to pat Xander's large furry shoulder. Madam Pince glared.

"I meant that beast behind you."

Gambit grinned.

"Oh, that's just Methos. He's not so bad when y' get t' know him."

Methos smirked and nodded at the old librarian. "I'm really not a beast. I've got excellent manners…when I chose to use them."

Madam Pince's face turned bright red with anger and she reached into her long sleeve to pull out her wand.

"Out! Out! All of you, out!"

She aimed her wand at them and shouted a hex. The three of them ducked down behind the book check-out counter and watched wide-eyed as a bright flash of crimson light streaked over their heads. The hex hit the short little blonde snot from Slytherin House that had been so rude to Professor Arturo and Rembrandt Brown for not having any magic. The bratty kid was lifted into the air, flipped upside down and thrown back into the library's stacks. He hit something back there with a thud and a groan.

Gambit's head popped back up over the counter and he beamed at her.

"That was very nice. Next time aim for Sev'rus. He could use de attitude adjustment of being thrown on his ass."

Madam Pince was so angry she literally danced in place.

"Out! Out! Out of my library! All of you, out!"

Gambit yelped as he was grabbed from behind and dragged over to Xander by Methos. The immortal was grinning like a loon even as he shoved Gambit up onto Xander's broad back while the cat crouched down. Mental feline laughter echoed through his head as Methos climbed up behind him. Both men clung to the black fur tightly as Xander leapt to his feet and skidded on the smooth tile flooring as he tried to turn for the door.

"Out!"

Xander leapt to the right as a flash of light sizzled past them to hit a polished suit of armor. The armor rang like a gong before exploding in a shower of clanging banging metal. Another flash of light and another leap. A stack of returned books flew up into the air, raining down on everyone's heads.

Scrambling to the door, Xander just lowered his head like a battering ram and bulled his way through, Gambit and Methos whooping in delight the entire time. A quick twist of his body in order to make the turn almost sent the two men flying from his back.

"And never come back!"

Another flash of light, a tapestry along the wall burst into flames.

Two giant bounds and then Xander leapt over a group of children. They could clearly hear Harry Potter's voice saying, "Whoa! Brilliant!" and then they were past them and dashing down the corridor.

=Well, fun as that was, things didn't quite go to plan.= A thoughtful pause as Xander took another corner at high speed. =Still, that was the best research party I've ever been to.=

**

* * *

**

65 – Star Gazing

Aurora cuddled up next to him on the bench and Gambit wrapped his arm around her shoulder. The picnic dinner they shared had already been cleaned up and tucked away. The large brass telescope in front of them was aimed at an area of space that Gambit knew well, the image transferred to show against the smooth stone wall via Aurora's magic.

Gambit pointed to a bright speck of light, "An' that's de star system of de Shi'ar Throneworld. De spiritual leader an' founder of de group that I was wit' in my home dimension be Charles Xavier. Charles be de Royal Consort of Lilandra Neramani, de Majestrix of de Shi'ar Empire."

"Majestrix?" Aurora's voice was soft with awe and a tinge of doubt.

"Oui," Gambit grinned at her briefly, "she be de Queen of all de people on all de various worlds in de Empire. Charles Xavier loved her, not for her power or privilege, but because she was a strong an' lovely femme. In fact, their relationship caused more problems then not." A shrug. "Our world, in my home dimension, was not a part of de Empire. We barbarians, heh?"

Gambit gestured to the picture of the stars shown on the wall and out the open balcony at the heavens above.

"It be so beautiful, I can' even tell y'. Don' have de words, me." He pulled her in closer. "Charles took a bunch of us into space t' help wit' invaders of de Empire before. De view from de windows in de spaceship…simply gorgeous."

He nodded to the picture, "What seems t' be just a blur of color on de wall is a vast cloud of glitterin' dust an' ice that shines an' glimmers so lovely when de light of de stars hit it. No air, no wind, no distortion of light t' block an' ruin de view of all de twinklin' stars."

Aurora leaned into him, her lips brushing along his cheek. "It sounds amazing. I would love to have the chance to go there, to see it all."

Gambit turned his head and gazed down into her eyes and brushed a soft curl of dark hair behind her ear.

"Beautiful…"

He could feel her emotions fluttering against his psi-shields. Lust and awe, happiness and desire. She was so very pretty, not in the over-the-top way of the X-women, but in the way that a normal woman was pretty. And she was so shy, so reserved and hesitant with her antiquated ways and charms. He wanted her.

Leaning forward slightly, he brushed his lips to hers. A quick rush of surprise hit his psi-shields and then she melted against him, humming deep in her throat. He pulled her closer to him, reminding himself to go slow, to be careful. She was so timid and pure.

The door behind them crashed open with a loud bang and Severus stormed onto the tower's rooftop in a swirl of black cape.

"Come on out of here you little miscreants! That's twenty points from…" he trailed off as he saw Aurora flushed and blushing brightly, her hands fluttering in her lap next to a glaring and very angry Gambit. Severus sneered, "Really Aurora! Lowering yourself with a filthy muggle?"

In a single heartbeat, Gambit was standing between Severus and Aurora, glowing cards hissing in his upraised hand.

"Leave." His eyes glowed with power and anger. "Or die."

Severus sneered one last time, huffed out a breath and then left in a swirl of black robes, his cape snapping at his heels. He was muttering curses to himself the whole way down the stairs.

Gambit turned to Aurora, but the moment was gone and her large dark eyes were swimming in unshed tears.

"I'm sorry…I've got to go."

And then she was gone in a flurry of swishing robes and sniffles. Gambit glowered and grit his teeth. He'd never wanted to punch anyone in the nose more than he wanted to hit Severus Snape right at that moment.

**

* * *

**

66 – Bad Faith

He really didn't understand the rules of this game that everyone was so excited about. It sounded sorta dumb to him and Xander had even less of an idea of what it was about. It was an excuse to get out of the castle though, so the three of them bundled up to head outside.

Xander's version of bundling up involved at knitted scarf around his neck in Gryffindor colors. He didn't care about the game, so long as Severus' House didn't win. Methos just wore a thick sweater under his trench coat along with a scarf, hat and gloves. Gambit was a poor southern boy from Louisiana though, and he found the day to be frigidly cold. Three layers of clothing just didn't seem enough, but he couldn't fit any more on.

They were making their way across the open grounds to the Quidditch Pitch, a whole flock of Gryffindor firstie and second years riding up on Xander's back. The kids were whooping in delight, waving banners and yelling encouragement for Xander to go faster. Methos was shaking his head and grinning in fond amusement and Gambit was trying not to notice that Aurora was avoiding him even as she cast him longing looks.

They were rounding the bend in the path when it happened. They came around a low bush to find the jerk Severus walking with a tall blonde man in antiquated velvet clothing and carrying a long cane with a silver snake's head for a handle. The man tilted his head, nose in the air and sniffed.

"Which one did you say it was, Severus?"

With a smirk, the jerk pointed to Gambit. "Him. The mongrel with the deformed eyes."

With a low condescending chuckle, the blonde sauntered over and sneered at Gambit, looking him over from head to toe and obviously finding him lacking.

"Yes, well. I can't say I fault your taste in women. Apparently, even a foul bred muggle such as yourself can see that pureblood ladies are much better than filthy muggles and mudbloods." A sneer crossed his face and he leaned into Gambit's personal space. "You overreach yourself, muggle. She isn't for you, so I would advise you to stay far away from your betters."

Gambit leaned back away from him and scrambled in his pocket, his face scrunched up in disgust. He pulled his hand back out of his pocket and offered a small piece of candy on the palm of his hand.

"Here," Gambit offered, "take a breath mint."

He waved his other hand in front of his face, coughed and lifted the candy higher.

"Please."

The blonde's face contorted into an expression of angry disbelief.

"Don't you know who I am?!"

Gambit blinked, glanced over at Methos. They shared a brief shrug.

"Um…y' an inbred moron that thinks marryin' his sister means that he don' gotta brush his teeth?"

The children on Xander's back broke out in giggles and chuckles even as feline laughter filled his head. The blonde, on the other hand, growled in a surprisingly realistic fashion and began to slide a weapon out of his cane. He didn't get it more than four inches out of its sheath when Albus appeared next to them like magic.

"Is there a problem, Lucius? Gambit?"

Gambit flashed him his most charming smile and gestured to his candy filled hand.

"Non, Headmaster. Just offerin' y' guest a mint."

**

* * *

**

67 – Temper

"Gambit goin' t' kill that fool!"

Methos grabbed him around the waist and leaned back, his weight and strength enough to keep Gambit from running out onto the pitch and beating Gilderoy Lockhart to a bloody pulp.

They watched as the blonde idiot stood there looking embarrassed and confused as the school nurse rushed Harry Potter off to the hospital wing, the boy's arm flopping bonelessly at his side. Who had let that fool onto the pitch in the first place?

"Lemme go, Methos!" Gambit struggled to be free of his friend, "Gambit just goin' t' beat de idiot up a lil' bit. Bust a few bones, heh?"

A few wiggles, a tug here, a twist there. Hah! He was free.

He got three whole steps before Methos grabbed him again. "Gambit! Stop! You can't just kill the moron. You promised Albus."

"Oui. Promise Albus not t' kill his staff 'cause Sev'rus is a grade A asshole. Then de blonde fool try t' molest Gambit, 'cause de fool think Gambit won't fight back."

Methos nodded and tightened his grip on Gambit.

"Yes, and he's lucky that Xander intervened before you lost control of your temper."

"Oui," which wasn't bragging. Gambit's temper combined with his charging power could probably take out half of Hogwarts. Gambit's temper combined with his bo staff was just as dangerous, if on a more personal level. He could shatter bone, burst internal organs and kill anyone without a healing factor with that staff.

And right now he wanted to take that bo staff and do horribly painful things to the blonde buffoon pretending to be a concerned teacher. He struggled, but Methos had too good a hold of him and wasn't letting go.

"Fine. Gambit won' kill de fool." A nasty smirk. "I just break some bones. Start wit' de bones in his wand hand an' then de bones in his wrist. From there, I shift t' de bones in his arm. Only break de arm in two, maybe three, places. Then he can sit in de hospital wing wit' Harry an' know how it feel, heh?"

"Oh, that's a horrible thing to do to poor Harry. Not only does he have to deal with all the bones in his arm being magically sucked out of his body, you're going to send his torturer to stay in the bed next to him? The idiot will keep Harry up all night talking about himself."

Gambit paused, thought about that and then huffed. "Fine. Y' right." A wicked chuckle, "Gambit bust his nose an' knock out all his teeth too."

Methos huffed and struggled to contain the angry mutant. "That isn't what I meant."

It was at that point that Xander padded over to them, the psi-link filled with smug satisfaction. And just how Gambit had missed a horse-sized cat sneaking off was something he didn't understand, but he chalked it up in the column of it's-a-cat-thing and let it go.

Then Xander dropped Gildeory's wand at Gambit's feet.

"*Wha?...*"

=I growled at him. He went pale, shrieked a little and dropped his wand.= Mental laughter tickled through Gambit's head. =I picked it and walked away. He didn't fuss too much over it.=

Gambit laughed and reached out to run one gloved hand over Xander's furry shoulder.

"*Y' a good cat, y' know that?*"

Then he bent down, scooped up the wand one-handed, grinned viciously and snapped it between his fingers.

**

* * *

**

68 – Midnight Monsters

=Gambit!=

"*Hhhhenn?*"

Gambit's eyes almost opened but then he just rolled over, cuddled deeper into his soft warm blankets and began to snore again. He vaguely wondered where naked Jeannie, Betsy and Rogue went off to. He wanted to keep watching them dance.

=Gambit!= The voice rocketed through his skull and his face twisted into a deep scowl.

=It's back! It's back! It's back!=

The door to his bedroom slammed open with a loud echoing bang. Gambit flinched with his entire body from the shock of the noise. He peeled open one eye quick enough to see Xander's huge furry head shove its way between the hanging curtains into the dark warm space of his bed. The giant cat took hold of his blanket with his teeth, yanked back hard and sent Gambit to spinning in a roll right out of bed as he was unceremoniously unwrapped from it.

"*De Hell!?*"

=C'mon! Hurry! It's back, Gambit, it's back!=

Confused, half asleep and fighting off the waves of excitement and panic flooding into him from the psi-link, Gambit stumbled to his feet and grabbed up the dressing gown hanging from a hook behind the door and followed the apparently insane mutant panther crashing down the hall.

He stepped out of his bedroom only to see a very confused and angry Methos, hair sticking out at all angles, in his boxer shorts and carrying his sword. It was an oddly comforting sight since it meant he wasn't the only one roused out of a warm comfy bed in the middle of the night.

"What the hell was that bang? What's going on?"

Gambit just shook his head and pushed past him in order to follow Xander.

"Don' know, homme. Xander's flippin' out saying that it's back. Don' know what de hell he's talkin' 'bout."

Gambit came out into the common living room the three of them shared in their suite of rooms and found Xander dancing impatiently by the door waiting.

=Hurry!=

"*Dammit, Xander. What de hell? What's back?*"

Xander turned his head to give him a look over his shoulder that could easily translate into 'Duh, stupid', but that didn't clear things up at all.

=The demon monster thing in the walls. I can hear it.= Xander's head turned and looked up at the corner of the ceiling as if he could see through all of the stonework to what lay beyond. =It's on the move again.=

Gambit twisted to call back to Methos, who was just coming out of his room where he had apparently retrieved his own dressing gown.

"Xander says its de monster in de walls again. It's moving now an' he can hear it."

"Shit." Methos' eyes went flat and his mouth twisted into a grimace before he shook his head and called out, "Bindi!"

Methos' personally assigned house elf appeared in a flash of light and a loud crack. He opened his mouth, most likely to utter some house elfish nonsense but Methos cut him off before he could speak.

"Go tell the Headmaster that the monster is on the loose again. Xander can hear it and we're going to track it. Lead the Headmaster to us as soon as he's able to come. Hopefully, we'll have found the monster by then." The house elf blinked at him in surprise. "Go!"

With a crack and a flash Bindi was gone and Gambit opened the door of their suite. Xander dashed out into the halls of Ravenclaw Tower and lead them on a merry chase down dark corridors, up a few moving staircases and along even more hallways. Somewhere along the way they picked up Albus, Minerva and even the jerk Severus.

Finally they rounded one last corner and they all came to an abrupt halt. There in the middle of the corridor was a child with a camera. Only the child had been turned to stone, unable to move or talk or see. It was horrifying.

The damage had been done and the monster was gone, slithered away behind the walls and out of reach once more. They had been too late.

Xander was inconsolable.

**

* * *

**

69 – Ton Tongue Toffee

Gambit wasn't really all that surprised when Methos' tongue suddenly swelled up in his mouth to the size of an adult anaconda and then proceeded to roll out across the Head Table and then down the aisle between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables in the Great Hall.

Amused? Yes. Concerned? Slightly. Surprised? Not in the least.

Ever since the young Gryffindor child had gotten petrified by the demon-snake loose in the school, a bunch of pranks had been going around. Rumor had it that the pranksters were trying to cheer everyone up. Which was fine, but they should have picked a target less likely to introduce several feet of cold steel to their anatomy in retaliation. Especially since that jerk Snape was currently laughing his head off at Methos' expense.

Although…this particular prank had great potential. It just needed a little, hmmm, refinement is all.

Calmly and quietly, Gambit very carefully snuck out of the Great Hall while everyone was either fussing with or chortling over Methos. He walked down the corridor and around the corner to where the other doors led into the Great Hall, and sure enough he found himself looking at the back of two identical red-headed trouble makers peeking through the doors and giggling uncontrollably.

Smirking, Gambit snuck up behind them and wrapped an arm around each of their shoulders. They stiffened in shock and tried to pull away, but Gambit had too tight a grip on them.

"Hello, mes amis."

Twin gulps and twin looks of mild fear. "We didn't do it!" spoken in unison.

Gambit nodded, false sincerity plastered across his face.

"Oh, 'course not. Gambit never said y' did."

The boys exchanged glances, nodded in unison and then smiled up at him with twin innocent looks.

"Right, then…"

"…we'll be going now."

"Non." Gambit held on tight and turned them around steering the two boys away from the Great Hall. "First…Gambit got t' tell y' he liked that prank. Funny. No one got hurt. Reversible."

The last word was less a statement than a threat. Both boys recognized that fact and nodded their heads hard in reassurance.

"Good." Gambit grinned. It was a naughty sort of grin. "Was thinkin' though. Might want t' come up wit' a different version of that prank. Instead of de tongue bein' nine t' ten feet long, only say…nine t' ten inches." He smirked again. "An' 'bout big around as my wrist."

The boys exchanged looks again, this time in confusion.

"Okay."

"…but why?"

Eyebrows raised, Gambit considered if he should tell the truth. If this was his own home world, they'd be old enough to either not have to ask or to understand the answer when it was given. This world was…backward in many ways. Victorian. Gambit frowned. Prudish.

"Ask Gambit again when y' older." A pause. "An' y' got y' first steady girl."

**

* * *

**

70 – Methos' Soapbox

Gambit didn't look away from Xander and Bobbin when Methos walked into their shared living room. Xander was laying on the floor, Bobbin standing in front of him and holding up a large book on the magical theory behind the animagus transformation. The psi-link was full of muttered grumbling about overly wordy authors with bad handwriting.

Gambit had read a few of the old books on the shelves in their rooms. He could sympathize.

A huff of frustrated irritation caught his attention and he turned his head just in time to watch Methos flop on the couch next to him. The immortal ran his hand over his face and then up into his short cropped hair, ruffling it further.

"Y' okay, homme?"

Methos grunted. It was very reminiscent of Wolverine.

"He still trying to learn that spell to turn himself back into a human?" Methos nodded his head towards Xander.

"Oui. Bitchin' up a storm too. Thinks de author was more interested in soundin' smart than he was in teachin' de spell."

Methos snorted and nodded, unsurprised.

"I don't doubt it for an instant." He frowned. "The people here…are very frustrating. They're so caught up in their magic and their bigotry that they don't seem to have any time for logic or reason or even sanity."

Gambit bit back a sigh. He knew where this was going and he'd heard it before. Personally, Gambit thought Methos spent too much time reading history books and newspapers…not to mention stalking that greasy asshole Snape.

"Do you know that I stood there, in a little nook off the library and listened to a bunch of children spout off nonsense about their bloodlines and how they were so much better than others because of it?" The immortal's hands curled into tight fists. "Do you have any idea just how many bloody wars I've gotten caught up in over that type of stupidity? How many friends, wives, and…and children I've had to bury because they didn't live up to someone else's totally useless and ultimately meaningless set of standards?"

The immortal seethed quietly for a moment and Gambit just nodded, silently shuffling his deck of cards. He felt bad for Methos, he did. He just didn't have any real point of reference to truly understand why the political and social bigotry here bothered him so much. Apparently after 5000 years of living, everything could drag a person back to a memory. And the odds were, it wouldn't be a good one.

Gambit tended to see it much like the issues of mutants back in his own world. He hadn't quite figured out how it all worked in his head, but he sort of thought of the pureblood assholes being like Magneto or the Brotherhood, while the muggleborn and light-side magic-users were more like the X-Men. Or something like that.

"I just want to scream at them; don't you know what you're doing? You're pushing for war. For blood and violence and death. Nobody will win that way." Methos shifted and glared at Gambit, his eyes intensely focused. "They don't have a big enough population base to survive a war. You know that, right?"

Gambit shrugged, a seemingly careless move. "Maybe that for de best."

Methos gaped at him.

"Think about it, homme. This castle can' be de only place in this world that has magic."

Narrow eyed with thought, Methos nodded.

"Ever hear of any other place? Gambit hasn't. Just de castle an' village here an' a neighborhood in London. That's it."

An expression of dawning understanding began to lighten Methos' stormy eyes.

"Don' really believe that magic only happens on this one little island, homme. What about America, Africa or Asia? What about all those other places, heh?"

For a long moment Methos just looked at him and Gambit simply shuffled his deck of cards. Finally, Methos spoke.

"You're saying that they should just be allowed to fight each other to the death. To wipe themselves out because magic itself with survive in other places."

Gambit shrugged and nodded. "Oui."

"That's cold."

Gambit paused, tried to feel bad about his callus attitude. His inner Marauder wouldn't let him.

"Oui." Gambit turned and looked over at his friend, his red eyes burning with power. "But do y' really think this society be worth savin'? Some of de individual people are nice, but de culture…Gambit has had enough of bigotry an' hatred t' last him ten lifetimes."


	8. GMX VIII

_**The Adventures of Gambit, Methos and a cursed one-eyed cat named Xander **_

Genre: crossover, series of related ficlets  
Characters: Gambit (X-Men), Methos (Highlander) and Xander (Buffy)  
Rating: R (to be safe - each ficlet varies)  
Disclaimer: I don't own any character from any of the various fandoms. I'm not making $ from this.  
Summary: Gambit's life takes a turn for the surreal. Then stuff happens.

**

* * *

**

**71 – Sparring, part 2**

CLANG! CLANG! Swoosh CLANG!

Gambit leaned against the wall, a gleeful smile stretching his face as he watched Methos spar with another suit of armor. His last opponent lay in scattered pieces across the stone floor. The current suit was a large plate-mail monstrosity that easily swung a sword so large that it could have been meant for Colossus himself.

CLANG! Swoosh CLANG!

CRASSSSH!

The armor collapsed to the floor in an explosion of sound when Methos decapitated it. Methos paused for a moment, as if waiting for a bolt of lightening to hit him out of the blue and then turned to grin madly at Gambit.

"Damn, that was fun."

Gambit held up his bo staff and nodded. "Up for a spar wit' Gambit?"

"With my sword? Or should I go get a pole-arm?"

Gambit shrugged and stepped further into the room Methos had been using, his staff already swinging around his body.

"Sword's fine, homme." He shrugged lightly as they circled each other. "Maybe later we see if one of de suits lets Gambit borrow a rapier, heh? M' skills be getting' rusty. Haven't picked up a blade in a long while."

One of Methos' eyebrows rose up high on his head, but he just nodded in agreement and then swung his sword at Gambit's head. A shift and twist, the blade came to a ringing stop on the bo staff. Gambit had no fear of the staff being cut or damaged; it was made of adamantium after all.

Sparring with Methos was a lot like sparring with Wolverine. He had a pretty good idea of Gambit's fighting style and adapted to it easily. He didn't have the feral mutant's strength, but he had more endurance and a healing factor that was just as quick. And just like Wolverine, Methos wasn't afraid to pull dirty tricks, something that MacLeod would have never done.

Gambit was having a blast.

"So, where's your furry shadow?"

"Heh?" Gambit twisted and ducked, his bo staff twirling to deflect another swing of the sword. "Oh, he be meditating on havin' two legs instead of four."

Methos blinked in confusion and then dodged a hit before reaching out a hand and snagging Gambit's trench coat as he tried to flip over the immortal's head. Gambit crashed to the floor, but rolled away instantly to avoid the foot that was headed towards his ribs.

"Why is he meditating on his legs?" Methos' tone of voice suggested that this was the most bizarre thing he'd ever heard.

"Eh…has t' visualize de change from cat t' human." Gambit snapped out with his staff, once, twice. Each time Methos shifted and blocked it with the flat of his sword. "Once he can do that, they gonna let him try de transfiguration spell."

"Oh."

Conversation apparently over, Methos took it up a notch. He seemed to virtually explode in a torrent of violent and seemingly insane moves. The battle shifted back and forth across the floor for about five minutes. Then, in a twist of screaming muscle, Gambit found himself tumbled across the floor and his bo staff spinning away from him and across the room. Climbing to his feet, he was quickly pushed up against the stone wall, Methos' sword pressed against his throat.

"You loose, Cajun."

Gambit just smirked. He tapped the small concealed weapon in his hand against the femoral artery in Methos' left leg. The immortal glanced down and saw the small sharp knife that could leave him bleeding to death with just one small flick and grinned with glee. He looked up again, his eyes practically glowing with approval.

"Oh, good boy." His voice purred in Gambit's ear. "Very nicely done."

**

* * *

**

72 – Animagus Spell

Gambit was practically dizzy from the wash of conflicting emotions coming across the psi-link. The worst was the desperate hope battling against an almost sickening fear and the barely squashed belief that happy endings were for other people. People not named Xander.

He wished that he could do something besides run a soothing hand down quivering fur and state once again that everything would be fine, that it would all work out. It was a lie, and he knew it. Happy endings didn't happen to Gambit anymore than they happened to Xander. They both had every single happy ending tainted with some horror happening to mess it all up.

Why should this be any different?

Still, he was trying to project confidence and hope and a strong belief that the spell would work. It didn't really matter that he wasn't sure who he was lying to, himself or Xander. It was all the same in the end.

Finally, his mind in some semblance of order and calm, Xander padded out to the center of the room to get ready for his attempt. Gambit shifted back to stand between Methos and Minerva. Albus stood off to the side with Poppy Pomfrey. They all waited while Xander closed his eye and began to concentrate.

This would be somewhat different than the normal animagus transformation. Gambit didn't know much about magic, and truly didn't care to learn. However, he had picked up enough to know that the wizards and witches on this world all had a core of magic burning brightly inside them. It was in their blood, their very soul.

Xander didn't have that.

He was an anchor. Having no magic of his own, he could instead pull raw wild magic into himself from the world around him and then channel it into something else as a calm steady stream. The idea here was that Xander would pull magic in from Hogwarts and channel it into his curse while focusing on the animagus transformation, forcing the change in the curse so that he would revert to human.

It was a long shot, and they all knew it.

Then Xander's form began to shimmer, like heat visions in the desert. Hope surged through the psi-link in a blast of happy-light-joy and Gambit couldn't help the small smile that turned up his lips.

The shimmering grew more pronounced and Xander's large size began to melt down, growing smaller and more compact. His limbs twisted slightly and his back arched. Pain and fear began to seep along the psi-link, but Gambit opened himself to those emotions and leeched them away from Xander, leaving only hope and happiness behind.

With a groan and a series of loud pops from bone shifting, Xander slowly stood upright, from four paws to two feet. His forepaws shifted slowly into hands. He continued to melt down until he stood around 6 feet tall, broad of shoulder with thick ropey tendons connecting long heavy muscles.

Oddly enough, he was still wearing the clothes that he must have had on when he was first hit with the curse and fell into the portal. Dark denim jeans over heavy work boots, a dark t-shirt with a flannel thrown over it. A three-quarter length brown leather coat over that. He also had a worn black eye-patch over his missing left eye. That was strangest of all; Gambit was used to seeing the empty socket.

And weapons…hoo boy, Xander was just draped in them.

He wore a pair of mismatched hand-cannons in a shoulder holster under the flannel and a battle harness that seemed to hold a multitude of blades and canisters that almost seemed like grenades, but weren't quite. And a huge battle axe had formed in one large hand, demon goo still dripping from its razor sharp blade.

Then Xander stumbled and almost fell, his mind going a hazy gray with fatigue. In a blink, Gambit dashed over and grabbed his friend before he tumbled to the ground. Pain flared brightly along the link and woke Xander up out of his hazy exhaustion. With a yelp, Xander shoved the axe into Gambit's hands and then yanked at his harness and his jeans in a panic.

Confused and wondering what the hell his friend was doing, Gambit nearly swallowed his tongue when Xander yanked his jeans down to his knees and reached behind himself.

"What de hell, homme?!" Gambit glanced over his shoulder and then reached out to spread his trench coat wide, hiding Xander from the view of the others in the room. "There's ladies present!"

Panic and horror and a sort of black resignation washed over the psi-link. "My tail…" Xander pulled his hand back and, indeed, a black furry tail came into view. "It didn't disappear."

Gambit looked down at it and then looked up at his friend's face. He debated saying anything, but it wouldn't stay a secret, so… "Y' also still got cat ears, mon ami. An' cat eyes."

Xander held out a hand, flexed his fingers and watched as small sharp claws extended and retracted. "Claws and fangs too."

A long moment passed and Gambit wondered what to say. He settled on, "It's not so bad, homme."

Xander's head snapped up and he glared. "Not so bad? Not so bad! Gambit! I look like a refugee that escaped from a furry hentai film!"

Methos sauntered over and looked Xander up and down over Gambit's shoulder. "Well, if you weren't standing there with your jeans around your knees, it would really cut down on the yaoi vibes."

Xander just growled at him.

**

* * *

**

73 – Cloudy Skies

Gambit sat in the window seat and stared out at the low hanging clouds covering the sky. It was a dreary and dismal day, freezing rain soaking everything and everyone. His mind had long since associated rainy days with his beloved Stormy and he had to fight the urge to go cheer her up.

She was back at the X-Mansion in his home dimension and he was stuck in some chilly old castle with a depressed cat and an angry immortal who was busy writing a scathing letter to the editor of the local paper. He missed her so much.

It was funny, in a way. He thought it would have been Rogue that he was constantly missing, and he did in a way. He wondered about her and hoped she was doing good and was happy, but…it was Storm that his mind returned to again and again. Oh, he thought about Wolverine and Bishop, Joseph and Hank. He thought about Scalphunter and Belladonna, Sabertooth and the New Sun.

But he missed Storm.

Her effortless elegance, her caring heart and gentle ways. Her joy in the simple pleasures of a sunny day, sweet smelling flowers and quiet growing plants. He missed her smile and her soft laugh, her strong sense of justice and her secret love of hot chocolate with those little mini marshmallows.

He wanted to curl up on the bed in her attic loft and listen to her beautiful voice as she sang to her plants and to the goddess she adored.

It was funny. At the time, other things had seemed so important. Mutant politics, battles against the FOH, against Magneto, against his ex-friends and comrades in the Marauders. The endless drama and angst he went through with Rogue; a beloved couple one day, spurned lovers the next. The guilt and heartache of past mistakes dragged into the light, the pain just as real and sharp as if it had happened the day before.

It had all seemed so immediate. So crushingly important and overwhelming.

And now that he had been gone for so long he could barely remember why. It was the little things that called him home. Betsy's perfume, Jeannie' naughty little giggle when she was doing something she knew she shouldn't, the scent of Logan's cigars trailing him like a friendly puppy, frozen coffee cups and a smirking Bobby running off, Hank's blue fur clogging the drain in the men's showers, Bishop's paranoia and way Charles Xavier never seemed surprised when Gambit once again proved just how intelligent he really was.

All those little things that he had barely noticed now seemed much more important than all the mutant hating bigots they'd faced, or all of the terrorists they'd fought off together.

At the heart of it all, however, was his beloved Stormy.

He wished she were there with him. He had absolute faith in her and he knew that she would support Methos in his quest to shake up the Wizarding World and make them see the damage they were doing to themselves. And she would help him to face his own inner demons, to not lose faith in humanity and to see that the effort really was worth it.

He knew she would help Xander out of the black depression he'd fallen into after his attempt at regaining his humanity failed. She would teach him that it didn't matter what one looked like, the shape of a body didn't determine the shape of a soul. Xander was a good man with a good heart, no matter if it had a cat's tail or an entire cat's body.

As for himself, well, she would just be there and love him. It was as simple and as complicated as that.

**

* * *

**

74 – Testing

Gambit shifted and leaned up against the wall next to Methos. The immortal grunted, but never looked his way. Instead the two men watched intently as Bill Weasley, Albus, Minerva and Poppy Pomfrey circled Xander, wands all waving as he shifted from giant cat form into his normal sized humanoid form.

Humanoid, because he was still part cat with his eyes, ears, tail and claws not reverting back.

The two witches and the two wizards seemed to babble at each other, discussing incredibly advanced and esoteric transfiguration magic. Xander seemed to follow along with most of it, but it sailed right over Gambit's head.

Finally, they had Xander shift back into a giant cat and then back into the feline humanoid form he tended to prefer now that he could do it. The joys of having an opposable thumb once again his, Xander was loath to give it up. Even if it meant having a furry black tail sticking out of the back of his jeans.

On the bright side, Bobbin had gone into spasms of ecstasy at the thought of having to adjust Xander's clothes to accommodate his tail. Then again, house elves were strange.

Elbowing Methos lightly in the side, he nodded his head towards the group and then pushed off the wall. Walking over he glanced from the group of magic-users, to Xander, and then back again.

"So…what's de good word, heh?"

"It's quite amazing that Xander is able to change as much as he does." Albus' eyes twinkled merrily. "He doesn't have any magic of his own, yet he can easily pull in a vast amount from outside himself to effect the transfiguration." A mild frown twitched his beard. "Of course, Hogwarts is an extremely magical location. Doing this spell in such a manner in a place with less magic could very well have a detrimental effect on the results."

Xander and Gambit shared a glance and a shrug. "Heh?"

Minerva frowned and gestured. "Hogwarts is providing you with a strong source of magic to draw on, hence your nearly complete transformation. If you transform in a less magical location you will not have as much magic to draw on and so the transformation will not be as complete. You might retain your fur or whiskers; perhaps you will not regain the ability to speak a human language." She sighed and shook her head lightly. "It all depends on the amount of available magic your have to draw on at the time."

"Oh." Xander's expression was shuttered, a perfect poker face. Gambit could feel the rush of disappointment along the psi-link that gave lie to that face. "So…I might never become fully human again?"

"Um…" the curse breaker with the long red hair cleared his throat and shuffled forward. "Not necessarily. When you transform you are actually fighting the power of the curse. It doesn't want you to shift into a human and resists your efforts. With the curse broken, it might be a lot easier and take less magic to get you as far to human as it does now."

Xander's heart filled with hope again.

"We think that the virus changed the curse so that now, the giant cat form is your natural form. When all is said and done and all magical restraints on you are removed, you will be a large horse sized cat. Removing the curse will make the shift to human easier, not permanent."

Gambit lifted a hand and rested it on Xander's shoulder. "That's a good thing though, right? Your world has plenty of magic in it, so you should be able t' shift t' human there too. Even if it's only for a bit at a time, it's something. Right?"

Xander looked up at him, his smile sort of crooked. "Yeah. It's something at least."

**

* * *

**

75 – Breaking the Curse

"*So…what's everyone doin'?*"

Xander sat curled up next to him in his horse-sized cat form since that was what everyone figured was his new natural state. He was watching as Bill Weasley and Albus set up the room for their attempt to break Xander's curse.

=Well, it's a lot different then how we do things back home, I can tell you that. Right now they're just setting up protections to catch and collect any stray dark magic so that it doesn't hurt anyone else. Bill will do the actual curse breaking by waving his wand at me and shouting strange words in Latin, English and probably Egyptian.=

Gambit nodded. It made as much sense to him as anything here did.

"*An' that's different from y'r world, how?*"

A sigh issued forth and Gambit, well trained cat owner that he was, reached out and scratched behind Xander's ear.

=Mostly cause we use rituals, not this direct force of magic. Lots of runes, candles, burning of stinky herbs, chanting and stuff. Or we find the loophole.=

"*Loophole, homme?*"

=Yeah. Most curses in my word have a loophole to them. A way to break the curse. Kinda like a get out of jail free card.=

Gambit paused in thought until Xander's head pressed tighter against his hand. Grinning slightly, he began to scratch again and Xander melted back into a puddle of fur.

"*Why didn't y' just use de loophole t' break it then?*"

=Don't know what it is. I asked Bill to check and see if he could figure it out, but all he got was something to do with innocent blood. I'm not going to go around slaughtering or eating innocent people until I accidentally get it right.=

"*Good point, mon chat.*"

=Thought so.=

"We're ready for you now, Xander."

=Well, here goes nothing.=

Xander climbed to his feet and delicately made his way over to the runes and symbols chalked onto the floor. He very carefully sat himself down in the middle of it all and closed his one eye. Gambit watched as Bill circled around, waving his wand, shouting out unidentifiable words and shooting beams of light at Xander.

A swirling wind picked up out of nowhere and set the candle flames to dancing. Shadows twisted along the walls and the air became heavy and humid, like a great weight was pressing down on everyone. Bill's voice got louder and his movements less graceful and more sharp.

Then, unexpectedly, a soft explosion of cold whispered along the psi-link before it slowly dripped away. Gambit couldn't help but shudder at the feeling. Gradually the wind died and the air grew lighter again. Bill slumped down; panting heavily and Gambit knew the curse was gone.

Broken.

"Eh…why Xander still a giant cat?"

Albus looked over at him and frowned mildly, his voice gentle. "Mr. LeBeau…Gambit. Xander's natural form is a cat now. That can't be helped. However, he can draw in magic to transfigure himself into a human, at least temporarily."

Before he could say anything, Gambit could feel Xander's mind focus tightly in concentration. Then his form shimmered and blurred, it shrunk down even as his fur slid away to reveal tanned skin and his clothing appeared out of nowhere. Then Xander was standing there. Fully human.

He watched, wide-eyed as a Xander with a human eye and human ears reached behind himself for a moment and then tipped his head back with peals of loud laughter booming out.

"No tail!"

**

* * *

**

76 – Methos' Secret

The old man had disappeared again.

This was beginning to get on Gambit's last nerve. He knew why Xander was missing. He was working with Albus and Minerva. Partly on redesigning the portal spell and partly to help him learn even better control over his ability to shape-shift between human and cat.

Plus, it didn't really matter where Xander went or what he did, Gambit had constant updates via the endless babble inside his head. Even more so since the curse had been broken, as if their psi-link was deepening and strengthening.

Methos, on the other hand, had taken to disappearing for large chunks of time and then dismissing it as nothing important. Gambit snorted. If it was nothing, then why did he go out of his way to avoid talking about it?

Glaring down at the game of solitaire he was currently losing, Gambit decided that enough was enough. Scooping up his deck of cards and shuffling them into some semblance of order, he figured his best bet for finding the errant immortal was to use the portraits hanging on the walls. A little flirting, a little Cajun charm, a few sultry smiles and the lovely painted ladies should be willing to tell him where his friend had gone.

That decided, off he went on a Methos hunt.

His plan had worked fine. At least, it did until he came upon an intersection of hallways that didn't hold any portraits at all. That's when it all went strange on him. He wasn't sure which way Methos had gone and there was no one around to ask if they'd seen him. Frustrated and cranky, he was about to give up and go back to their suite of rooms at the base of Ravenclaw Tower when he took a chance and asked a suit of armor.

Gambit had nearly blasted the thing apart when it stepped out of its shadowed niche and into the corridor. Armored glove held tightly onto the sword sheathed at its waist, the helmet nodded at him and intoned in a deep echoing voice, "I shall take thee to our brother knight, Sir Methos. Come quickly Squire Gambit, for 'tis a long way into the depths of our beloved castle."

Gambit blinked.

"Yeah…sure, homme. Gambit follow y'."

And so he walked along behind the loudly clanking suit of armor wondering why it decided he must be Methos' squire. Thinking about it a bit, he guessed it was because he fought at Methos' side, but not with a blade. Apparently a bo staff was an appropriate weapon for a squire. Logically, that meant that the armor probably equated Xander to a horse or mount. Not a big stretch since Gambit had ridden on his back several times.

The suit of armor led him down deep into the dungeons, but on the far side of the castle from the potions labs and the Slytherin dormitories. He wondered what the old man could be up to down here. Finally, the armor stopped and gestured to a door.

"Sir Methos is beyond yon door."

Gambit nodded. "Eh…thanks, mon ami. I appreciate y' help."

The armor nodded at him, bashed one mailed fist against its armored chest in acknowledgement, and then turned on its heel and clanked away again. Stifling a snort of laughter, Gambit opened the door and peered cautiously into the room.

He was confronted by a sheepishly blushing Methos standing next to an odd construction of copper tubing, large metal tubs, wire, and strangely shaped bits of glass balanced over a tightly contained and controlled fire. While he had never seen this particular contraption before, Gambit had spent enough time in the bayou and swamps to recognize a homemade still when he saw one. He quirked an eyebrow up at Methos.

"So…homme. Wha'cha brewin', heh?"

Methos' expression shifted from sheepish to what Xander called 'duh-face'. "Beer, of course." And Methos' tone of voice made it sound like that should have been self-evident.

Shaking his head, Gambit just laughed.

**

* * *

**

77 – The Love Letter

Gambit was sitting in their shared common room waiting on his friends to get ready for a nice sparring session when a large barn owl flew in from somewhere, circled him twice and then landed on the low table in front of him. The owl hooted imperiously at him and then shifted slightly to offer up one of its legs. Tied to the owl's leg with a length of lavender ribbon was a carefully folded parchment packet.

"Eh…is that for Gambit?"

The owl blinked and offered up its leg again. Gambit's eyebrow rose up and a grin shifted across his face.

"Guess that's a yes, heh?"

Leaning forward, he carefully untied the ribbon and took the packet.

"Thank you."

The owl gave him a long look, hooted loudly and then lifted off on soft wings and flew back out again. Gambit grinned at it the entire time. He still thought that the idea of mail owls was the strangest and most ridiculous thing he'd ever come across.

Turning to look at his letter, he opened it just as Xander walked out of his bedroom in his once again completely human body. As soon as Gambit broke the seal, the letter unfolded itself and dropped out a picture and a sweet scented sachet.

"Wha'cha got there?"

Gambit shrugged and waved Xander over.

"Don' know. Just arrived by owl."

He picked up the picture and turned it over. The smiling face of Gilderoy Lockhart looked up at him, winked and blew him a kiss. Scowling, he passed it over to Xander. His friend started to growl in an amazingly cat-like fashion. Then the letter began to read itself in a familiar annoying voice.

_Dearest Remy,_

_I know that you long to be with me my love. You yearn for my beautiful face and award-winning smile, my soft golden curls and my charming and debonair wit. It saddens me to think that the cruel and brash man known only as Methos and his fearsome beast have kept you from basking in the light which is Gilderoy Lockhart, famed bane of Dark Arts practitioners everywhere._

_Despair not, for soon we shall be together my love. Accept this small gift of scented herbs for under your pillow, hopefully it will bring you lush dreams of me. I know that the picture I have included is but a pale imitation of the real thing, but I hope it brings happiness to your yearning heart._

_Until such time as we can be together at last, I shall always remain,_

_Gilderoy Lockhart_

_Five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award._

Gambit and Xander exchanged amused looks and snorted in unison.

"That guy is a piece of work, I tell you. What he needs is a boot to the head."

Gambit nodded absently, "Oui, but only if they got steel toes."

Looking down, he saw the sachet that the letter had mentioned. He didn't want it and he certainly wasn't going to put it under his pillow. Still, there was something rather alluring about it. Without thinking, he reached for it only to have his wrist grabbed in a painfully tight grip.

"Don't touch that. It's got magic pouring off of it and we have no clue what it's meant to do."

Gambit's red-black eyes opened wide as he looked at the sachet as a potential danger for the first time.

**

* * *

**

78 – Angry Afternoon

Gambit sauntered along beside a quietly snarling Methos as they trailed behind an angry and determined Xander. He tried to pay attention to what the immortal was saying, but he kept finding his focus drifting back to Xander. Xander the human. Xander, a one-eyed dark haired man with thick ropey muscles and long legs. It was still so very strange to look over at him and see a human. He kept expecting to see a large furry cat.

They followed Xander out of the castle, across the grounds and over to the barn and haddock where the thestrals were corralled. Leaning against the fence, Gambit watched as Xander found a length of rope and began to fashion of yoke of sorts.

"Seriously, we should put together the portal spell and leave this world as soon as possible."

Gambit looked over at Methos for a moment, confused and then shrugged.

"I don' see what y' so upset over. Albus made de man promise not t' send me no more love charms."

Xander snorted and held up the fragrant sachet. "Gambit, this little love charm is mojoed to make who ever has it have naughty sex dreams about the person that made it. That would be Lockhart, by the way. Eventually the dreams change into infatuation and then love."

Xander tied the sachet to the yoke and then tossed it over the head of a thestral.

"Lockhart knew that you didn't like him or want anything to do with him, so he tried to use mojo to turn you into his little love slave. That's sick, man." A wicked smirk crossed his face as he patted the flank of the thestral. "Let's see how lover-boy likes it when this guy here starts trying to mate with him."

Gambit blinked. "And you think Gilderoy is sick?"

Xander snorted and shrugged, an oddly sad look flickering across his face for a moment. "What can I say, Anya would be proud of me. Besides, the guy deserves a little vengeance."

"It's a fitting punishment." Methos snarled, "Albus won't do anything about it. Just like he hasn't done anything about Severus and his nasty little snakes."

Methos spun and shook a finger under Gambit's nose.

"And don't give me any crap about how Lockhart promised not to send you anymore enchanted items. He'll find a way around it sooner or later. He's not the type to take no for an answer."

Methos turned back and grabbed onto the fence railing and sighed. "I just…I hate this world. It's full of petty jealous people that are so short-sighted and self-important. And the ones who actually have the power and ability to change things and to make a real difference, won't. Too busy keeping the status quo."

Xander sauntered over, brushing his hands off and smirked. "Plus, all they serve to drink in the Great Hall is pumpkin juice and you can't stand the stuff."

Methos pulled a face at even the thought of drinking the foul stuff and Gambit snickered.

"That too."

Methos shook his head.

"I'm just…tired of constantly having to watch my back here. The students, the staff, everyone is so tied up in their personal view of how the world should be that they can't see how it actually is. And Albus…I know you like the old guy Xander, but he's full of words and platitudes. He doesn't actually do anything to curtail the more vicious and dangerous people in the castle."

Xander opened his mouth as if to protest, paused and then shut it and nodded.

"Yeah. I know." A pained look flashed over his face. "It's like he's got Sunnydale Syndrome. He only sees what he wants to see. Everything else is laughed off or explained away."

**

* * *

**

79 – Little

=Gambit! Gambit! Gambit!=

The huge cat came dashing around the corner, slid on the slick marble and crashed into a suit of armor. Bits and pieces of metal flew everywhere.

='Scuse me. Sorry about that.=

Then his claws dug in and he was off like a shot, charging down the corridor and headed straight at Gambit. Excitement and happiness poured into his brain via the psi-link and he couldn't help but grin like a loon at his friend. Xander leaned back and tried to stop, but slid on the marble once more. Chuckling, Gambit stepped away to the side and waved as Xander skidded past him and slammed into the wall.

=Ooof!=

Gambit snickered and walked over to the huge cat. "*Y' okay there, homme?*"

=Fine. I'm fine.= Xander picked himself up off of the floor, spun around and practically danced in place with excitement.

"*What's got y' so giddy? Y' actin' like a school-girl at a boy-band concert.*"

=Hey!= Xander's mental voice was a wash of indignation. =Take that back right now or I won't show you the new trick I learned.=

"*Okay, fine. Y' not actin' like a school-girl droolin' over de boys. Happy?*" Gambit smirked and didn't mention that Xander really did remind him of Jubilee after far too many Mountain Dew's.

Xander gave him a long assessing look. =Yeah. Uh-huh, sure.=

The excitement too much for him, Xander started dancing in place again. =Minerva taught me another trick. Wanna see?=

"*Of course, mon chat.*"

Xander stopped dancing and quivered instead. He closed his eye and Gambit could feel the big cat's mind come into a sharp focus, then the swirling rush of magic as Xander absorbed it from around him. Then, the oddest thing happened. Xander seemed to shimmer for a brief second and then swiftly shrunk down with a soft sucking noise. By the time he released his hold on the magic, Xander had gone from the size of a large horse to that of a regular housecat.

"*Mon Dieu!*"

Gambit knelt down, wide-eyed and amazed. Xander stepped onto his lap with his two tiny front paws and looked up into Gambit's face and purred.

=Look Gambit, I'm little!=

**

* * *

**

80 – Portkeys

A mystical fish-hook jabbed itself into Gambit's belly-button and yanked him off of his feet and into the middle of a tornado. The twister spun him around and around. The only thing that kept him from panicking was that everyone else that had been holding on to the magic hoola-hoop was still there.

Methos looked sick to his stomach, Xander was screaming his head off, Minerva was staring at them in confusion as if she couldn't understand what was upsetting them, and Albus was twinkling in vast amusement. For his part, Gambit had to work extra hard to resist the urge to charge the hoola-hoop into a glowing fuchsia bomb.

Gambit decided right then and there that he hated portkeys. Quick and efficient they might be, but they were also dizzying, disorienting and downright dreadful.

"Let go!"

Gambit's expression of stunned disbelief was mirrored perfectly on Xander's face.

"Are you nuts?!"

Gambit nodded his agreement with Xander's question.

Albus just chuckled. "We've reached our destination. Let go of the portkey."

Promising himself that if this didn't work he was going to blow the old wizard's beard to kingdom come, Gambit let go of the hoola-hoop. Instantly he began to fall from the sky. Twisting his body into a spin to slough off some of the kinetic energy he was building up, Gambit pulled out of his roll and landed on his feet, knees bending deeply to absorb the impact.

Methos slammed into the ground next to him and rolled to a graceless stop, a low moaning the only indication the fall didn't kill him. Xander had somehow transformed into a giant cat partway through the fall and tried to land on all four paws. His sudden jolt ended in a loud howl of pain as the bones and joints in all four limbs protested the abuse. The psi-link fairly shivered with anger and agony.

Minerva and Albus floated gently down, twittering to each other in apparent amusement of watching uninformed muggles fall from the sky.

Gambit dashed over to Xander, his brow puckered in anger and worry as he fluttered his hands over the furry body, unsure what to do. When the two magic-users landed, Gambit spun towards them and snarled.

"When y' done laughin' at de poor unfortunates, y' think y' can do somethin' about Xander's four broken legs?"

That brought them up short.

"What? How?" Minerva in particular seemed upset. "Why didn't you just float down?"

Gambit snorted.

"Muggles don' float lady. They fall out de sky like a rock an' get injured when they slam into de ground."

He stormed past her and walked over to Methos. "Y' okay there, ol' man?"

A groan, then one hazel eye opened. "Lay me flat. Then stab me in the heart with my sword."

"What?!"

Gambit turned to look at a horrified Minerva. Methos glared at her. "My spine is shattered. My Quickening will heal it faster that way."

Turning away from the pale and shaken witch, Gambit rolled Methos on his back, ignoring his panting breath and choked back moans of pain. Then he pulled out the immortal's sword and aimed it at his heart.

"See y' soon, mon ami."

A quick thrust, then he pulled the blade out and watched silently as the blue flickers of Quickening energy began to build along his friend's skin. Then he turned and walked past Minerva again to see what Albus was doing to Xander.

"Xander?"

Albus waved his wand a few more times and Gambit could feel the pain along the psi-link lessoning as bone and tendon mended.

"*I'm fine. Just…gonna be sore for awhile.*"

"How is it that you avoided injury?"

Gambit lifted an eyebrow and studied the witch for a moment. "Gambit has trained t' be able t' survive falls from great heights. That was about at his upper limit t' do, an' even then it take some luck, heh?"

With a sigh he turned to watch as Methos began to revive. "Last time Methos traveled by magic hoola-hoop he bitched an' complained that they landed in a pond. Guess it was a good thing they did. De other four wit' him would have probably died if they didn't."

Minerva was flustered and upset.

"I didn't think…I didn't know…"

Gambit shrugged.

"What's it matter, heh? We only muggles."


	9. GMX IX

**The Adventures of Gambit, Methos and a cursed one-eyed cat named Xander**

Genre: crossover, series of related ficlets

Characters: Gambit (X-Men), Methos (Highlander), and Xander (Buffy)

Rating: R (to be safe – each ficlet varies)

Disclaimer: I don't own any character from any of the various fandoms. I'm not making $ from this.

Summary: Gambit's life takes a turn for the surreal. Then stuff happens.

**

* * *

**

81 – Experiment

"This day hasn't turned out like I had hoped so far."

Albus seemed old and tired, a frown turning down lips on a face normally smiling. He tugged at his own beard lightly.

"I had heard that it was recommended to travel with muggles by taking them through the floo, but I hadn't thought to investigate why. Most of the muggles who venture into our world usually do so by entering Diagon Alley through the Leaky Caldron, so it's not something that ever occurs."

"It was never my intention for anyone to be injured." He was sincere in that; Gambit could feel that much despite his psi-shields.

"Yes, yes," Methos was cranky, "but why are we here?"

Albus seemed taken a bit aback by Methos' abrupt words, but didn't comment on it. Instead he gathered his thoughts and turned to face Xander, speaking to the giant cat directly.

"Xander…as you know, your ability to shift from this form to human is dependant on the ambient magic available in the environment. That was not a problem at Hogwarts, for you had an abundance of magic at your fingertips just waiting to be called upon."

The old wizard gestured around them. "This location is quite the opposite. There is no ley-line running through here, no magical node, no ancient ward structure, and no embedded enchantments nor is there a population of hundreds of magical beings. The location itself is in many ways; muggle."

Gambit could feel Xander's mind focus, that oddly pulling in sensation that he associated with Xander's spells and then…nothing. That rush of energy and life that he simply knew as magic was missing.

"So…y' want Xander t' try t' shift into a human here? T' see if it can be done?"

Albus nodded his head before peering out over his glasses. "Quite simply, yes."

Gesturing to the giant cat, he smiled. "Xander's ability to pull in raw magic is astounding. I've never seen anyone with the gift have his skill or strength."

The psi-link fairly hummed with the force of Xander's concentration. His mind was focused so tightly that no other thoughts or emotions swirled from him. The trickle of magic flowing into the great cat was slow and steady, a continuous tiny dribble instead of the rushing flood he'd grown used to at Hogwarts.

Slowly, Xander's form began to shimmer and melt as he began to shift his forms. His spine shortened and his hips altered to allow him to stand up. The plains and angles of his face shifted and morphed, becoming a blend of feline and human, even as his limbs shifted more towards human. His paws slid towards becoming hands, toes extending into fingers. Narrow of waist and with a barrel chest, Xander stood there, half man-half cat.

At nearly eight feet tall, covered in dark fur and sporting fangs, claws, a tail, and a gleaming cat's eye, Xander reminded Gambit of those old Thunder Cat cartoons that Bobby and Jubilee used to watch on Saturday mornings.

"Gammm'it?"

Gambit grinned at his friend, recognizing his name despite the fact that the shape of Xander's mouth mangled his speech.

"Eh, homme. Y' look good." He chuckled lightly. "Like one of de Thunder Cats, heh?"

Good humored curiosity washed over the psi-link even as Methos chuckled.

"Ppppannnn'thhh'rrrro?"

Gambit cocked his head and studied Xander's humanoid form; at least how it looked when he shifted in a non-magical area. Personally he thought the resemblance was closer to a dark furred Sabertooth, but as Xander had never met Victor Creed, that reference wouldn't help.

"Sorta, homme." He shrugged and grinned. "Y' better lookin' though."

"Pppppprrrr't'yyyy caaaat."

Methos snorted in amusement and shook his head even as Gambit reached out and scratched Xander behind the ears.

"Oui, mon ami. Y' a pretty cat."

**

* * *

**

82 – Psi-Link

Gambit shuffled the cards in his hands one last time and then dealt out another hand of solitaire on top of the coffee table. He shifted in his seat, frowned, shifted again and then sighed. He turned over the first three cards, frowned and tried to focus on the cards.

It was no good. He was bored, restless and his nerves were beginning to fray thin.

Sparring was usually good to keep him occupied, or even practicing his tumbling and gymnastics in some large empty room. He couldn't indulge himself right now though. He was still a bit sore from straining his muscles when the portkey had dropped them off forty feet in the air. Oh, he was in good enough shape that he could fight if attacked, but he really did need time to let his muscles and ligaments rest a bit.

He wasn't in the mood to sit around drinking illegally brewed beer with Methos. It wasn't strong enough to get either of them drunk and he wasn't about to volunteer to listen to several hours of Methos' plans to pull the Wizarding World's heads out of their collective asses.

Sneaking around the castle was no fun because that little house elf Toppin followed him everywhere, and Gambit was pretty sure that he reported Gambit's every move to…someone.

And really, there was absolutely nothing to do in a magic castle if you didn't have magic yourself. There was no television, radio or internet. He didn't have a motorcycle he could hop on and spend the day riding. There were no movies, microwave popcorn or even a good trashy novel to sink his teeth into. He couldn't even pick up a phone and call Jake to have one of their infamous bitch and moan sessions.

Thanks to that greasy ass Snape, he didn't even have Aurora to cuddle and coo with anymore.

So,…bored.

Closing his eyes and leaning back in his chair, Gambit idly wondered where Xander was and what he was up too. He poked lightly at the spot in his brain that accessed the psi-link.

Normally, fussing with the psi-link resulted in gaining Xander's attention. Depending on how hard he mentally tugged at it he could end up with a distracted =huh?= to a full blown panicky crush-kill-destroy response. Either way, it was usually followed by babble.

Emotions sort of washed back and forth between them, like two shores on either side of the ocean. Thoughts seemed to be more like conversation; words and ideas that had to be directed and such. Xander had learned to send fairly complete images and they sometimes wound up in each others dreams.

This time, something different happened.

Gambit poked the psi-link and was sucked down into it. He'd heard of out-of-body experiences and he was willing to bet this was somewhat what it was like. His entire consciousness seemed to funnel down the link, leaving his body slumped on the chair in his suite of rooms.

He hurtled through a dizzying array of thoughts, emotions, colors and sounds until he washed ashore all battered and confused in the back of Xander's brain.

Gambit was far too stunned and shell-shocked to do anything more than gape stupidly as he suddenly found himself falling out of a chair to land with a crash on the cold stone floor. Startled exclamations were swiftly followed by Albus and Minerva leaning over him and helping him to his feet.

And why did everything look so strange and flat and the colors were all wrong! Plus, when did he get so short…and heavy? And why was Minerva calling him Xander?

=Gambit!=

He jerked in shock.

"*Xan? What de hell goin' on, homme?*"

=Whatever the hell you did to body-swap us, change it back! Quick! Before I blow the damn table to pieces! I don't know how to control your charge!=

And wow! That was one hell of a rush of panic and fear rushing up the psi-link and into his brain. Gambit glanced down at hands that were not his own and saw that he was wearing clothing that looked remarkably like the outfit Xander had put on this morning.

"Albus, homme? Would y' mind magicin' up a mirror for me, heh?"

Albus and Minerva exchanged glances and then turned to him in confusion. With a seemingly careless and effortless wave of his wand a mirror popped into existence next to him. Gambit turned to look, and sure enough, he found himself staring into human-Xander's face.

"Oh, Mon Dieu!"

"Gambit?"

He turned a shocky look up at Albus and nodded.

"Oui."

Closing Xander's one eye, Gambit reached into his head and poked the psi-link again. Once more, he found himself sucked into a funnel of emotions, thoughts, colors and sound. Dizzy and vaguely nauseous, Gambit opened his eyes to find himself back in their suite of rooms and sitting in front of a brightly glowing coffee table.

"Merde!"

Wide-eyed with panic, he leapt off the chair and ran for the hallway leading into their bedrooms. He had barely made it around the corner and behind cover when the living room exploded in a wash of heat, flames and bio-kinetic energy.

"Bon Dieu, Gambit promise never t' be bored again, heh?"

**

* * *

**

83 – Musings part 2

"Oui, it was strange an' weird, mais…Gambit think it was a mutant thing."

Xander and Methos exchanged looks and shrugged.

"What, exactly, do you mean? A mutant thing?"

Gambit paced back and forth a bit, his mind whirling too fast to really pin everything down.

"De link…it was forged by magic, true. That's not what keeps it goin' though. Gambit keeps it goin', wit' his mutant psi-abilities." He ran his hands through his hair, tugged on a few locks. "Not strong an' powerful. Non, de charge is strong, mais not de psi powers. Got great psi-shields an' a very shaky hold on de charm, mais…never been strong enough t' need real trainin'."

Methos reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose, sighed and looked up in exasperated confusion.

"So…you think that maybe the magic link is making your…psi abilities stronger? Or maybe just because you're using them more…sort of like getting stronger muscles when you exercise?"

Gambit paused, tilted his head and thought about it.

"Maybe. De White Queen, she one of de strongest telepaths Gambit know. In de top five of de whole world, actually. She ended up following a mental link right into de Iceman's body. Took him over for a while until she could get back t' her own body."

Gambit turned and sent an apologetic look over at Xander.

"Gambit nowhere near strong as de White Queen, though. Should never have happened."

Xander reached up and rubbed at the back of his head and neck. "Look. I'm not mad or anything. Okay, it was confusing and surprising and all, but…" he grimaced, "I'm more worried about it happening again because I can't control your charge."

Sighing Xander shrugged and shook his head. "It was scary, you know? I mean, I don't know how you deal with it all the time and I live in your head."

"Oh?" Methos' face was one of pure curiosity.

Xander nodded and gestured around the room. "Everything was like…vibrating. I could sort of feel it, just…humming and being right there."

"Vibrating?"

Methos was confused, but Gambit was nodding.

"He was feeling the potential kinetic energy locked inside all of de inanimate objects. De charge unlocks that potential an' excites de molecules until…Boom!"

"Ah…"

"That's why Gambit thinks we should put together de portal spell as soon as possible an' have Albus send us all t' Gambit's home dimension. We need t' get a telepath t' either separate us…"

Both Gambit and Xander cringed at that.

"…or Gambit needs t' learn t' control it. Or Xander needs t' learn how t' deal wit' Gambit's charge."

Sighing, Methos nodded. "Okay. I'll spend some time meditating on it and see if I can't reproduce the documents we sent out. My memory is fairly good if I focus hard enough."

Xander nodded too, but hesitated a moment. "Guys…I'd like to try and take care of this snake demon thing before we leave. I don't like the idea of leaving a dangerous monster around to attack innocent kids."

The other two nodded in agreement.

**

* * *

**

84 – Staff Meeting part 2

"…Mandrakes are coming along just fine. I've been giving them my personal attention. As soon as they are ready for harvesting, I shall do so myself just to be certain it's done correctly."

"Wonderful. Thank you, Professor Sprout."

Albus stood up and gazed around the room at the people sitting at the table and sighed. He looked old and tired for a brief moment before he stood up straight and began to speak.

"After researching the clues, hints and evidence I have come to the conclusion that the beast sliding through Hogwarts walls and terrorizing its children is a basilisk."

Immediately, people began clamoring to be heard as they shouted out denials or ideas. Finally, Minerva waved her wand and made a loud popping sound. Everyone hushed and she turned concerned eyes to the old wizard.

"Headmaster, surely…" she trailed off, upset and worried. "None of the students have died."

Albus nodded and looked over his glasses at her. "Indeed."

"Basilisks are fearsome creatures created by the darkest of magics. Unnatural, they are born of a chicken's egg and hatched under a toad. Known as the King of Serpents, a basilisk is frighteningly intelligent and vicious with the deadliest of poisons in its fangs. The most dangerous aspect a basilisk possesses is a murderous stare."

Methos leaned forward, "Murderous stare?"

"Yes," Albus tugged lightly at his beard. "A basilisk's stare can kill. One must make eye contact with it, of course. I believe that's why we had such a hard time figuring out what the monster was. No one has died." He nodded at Minerva to acknowledge her point.

Xander was the first to understand. "It was the lack of direct eye contact, wasn't it?"

Albus paused, perhaps in surprise that Xander figured it out so fast, but nodded. "Yes. I believe that all of the victims so far have viewed the basilisk through a reflection, thus diluting its murderous stare into a form of the medusa curse."

Everyone just sort of stared at each other in horror. Gambit could feel their almost hopeless fear at the very idea of such a monster against his psi-shields. Xander just radiated determination and curiosity.

"So…how do you kill one of these basil-snake thingies? Regular slice-n-dice? Some explosives? Candles, stinky herbs and chanting? Oh, and how big is this thing gonna be anyway? Big enough to eat pets, people, horses?"

Everyone turned to stare at Xander. Some were a little more incredulous than others.

"What? I'm a demon hunter. It's what I do. And you can't tell me you plan to let this thing run free around your school."

It was Albus that answered him.

"Indeed, you are correct. I do not plan to let the basilisk have free reign over the school. As for killing one, I suppose that it could be cut just as any other snake, though it would be very dangerous to get so close. As I said, its stare is as deadly as its bite. The safest way known to kill one is with the sound of a cock's crow."

Gambit blinked at that. "Cock's crow…y' mean a rooster?"

Albus nodded.

"Yes, quite so. The crowing of a rooster is one of the only known ways to kill such a beast. It is speculated that this mystical weakness is due to it being hatched from a chicken's egg."

"Ah."

"Well, that makes the kind of sense that is not, but that's dark magic for you. Always with the strangeness and weirdness."

Gambit nodded at Xander. He didn't understand dark magic rules either.

**

* * *

**

85 – Roosters

Gambit and Methos were on their way to spar with each other and whichever suits of armor wanted to join in when they ran into a very upset Hagrid. The half-giant was carrying a dead chicken. Well, a rooster to be exact.

"Eh…Hagrid, homme." Gambit gestured to the dead bird hanging from the man's huge hand. "What's wit' de dead bird?"

Hagrid seemed startled for a moment and looked down guiltily at the rooster.

"Well, I was jus' goin' round ter the chic'n coop ter see how many roosters we had on hand, like. Figured that if'n there weren't too many tha' I'd need ter go get some more for the…eh,"

Hagrid made a big show out of looking around for spies and then leaned down to whisper in a loud voice, "…plans ter kill off the ya-know-wha'."

Gambit and Methos exchanged looks. Gambit could tell that Methos was trying not to grin like a fool, mostly likely for the same reason that Gambit wanted to snicker like mad. Hagrid, no matter how hard he tried, just wasn't discrete.

"And that led to you carrying around a dead chicken…how?"

Hagrid shook his head and waved the dead bird around almost frantically.

"That's jus' it. This ain't no dead chic'n. It's a rooster. All three of the Hogwarts roosters are dead. Throats all slit, like."

Methos grew very still and held up one hand.

"Hagrid…how many chickens…hens specifically, were killed?"

Hagrid frowned. "Well…none, actually."

Methos and Gambit shared another glance, this one much darker.

"That means that someone knows about the basilisk and wants to protect it."

"No," Hagrid seemed appalled at the idea. "Who would do something like that?"

Gambit shrugged and gestured to the rooster. "Gambit don't like de thought either, but Methos has a point, homme. De only safe way t' kill this thing is wit' a rooster an' all de roosters are suddenly killed? It's very suspicious. They weren't attacked by an animal, right? Y' said it y'self, they throats were slit…wit' a knife."

Hagrid stared at the rooster, his frown growing into a look of horror.

"Tha' means tha' this basilisk isn't jus' some wild one tha' got lost an' took shelter in the castle. Some dark wizard must of put it here in the hopes tha' someone would die."

Gambit and Methos both nodded in agreement.

"Hagrid…we need to bring this to Albus' attention right away. Also, I think you should probably plan to order a whole bunch of roosters and then find some place for them that's well protected against intruders."

Hagrid looked up, his expression slipping from horror to strong determination.

"Yer right, of course. The Headmaster needs t' hear of this right away."

**

* * *

**

86 – The Outsiders

=Gambit?=

Xander's mental voice was a mix of confusion and mild suppressed panic.

=Um…can you please come here and help me out a little. I'm not sure what to do.=

Gambit looked up from the floor plans of the castle that he was going over with Methos and Filius Flitwick.

"*Xander, homme? Where y' at, mon chat?*"

=Um…in a nook by the main stairs off the sixth floor. That's not the problem, though.=

"*Oh? What de problem then?*"

=Well…I'm sort of being sobbed all over by some little kid. You know the one…with the glasses that could hear the demon-snake talking? Him.=

Gambit cringed. A crying kid. That was bad. Almost as bad as a crying femme. He was very tempted to pretend to be too busy and leave his furry friend to deal with it all by himself.

=Come on Gambit, please! He just sorta came up to me, hiccupped and then threw his arms around me and began crying into my fur…snot and all. I have no idea what's wrong and if I shift, I'll probably freak him out. Come talk to him. Find out what's wrong.=

With a sigh, Gambit pushed his chair away from the table and stood up. He looked over at the other two men.

"Gambit be back, heh. He go help Xander wit' a problem real quick." Methos nodded his head absently, even as Gambit muttered "hope it be quick, an'way."

It didn't take him long to get to the nook on the sixth floor. It was almost as if the magic in the moving staircases knew where he was going and were trying to be helpful. And with magic, who knew, perhaps they were.

The nook itself was a fairly large space, probably meant to contain a large statue or functional art piece. It was currently empty of artwork and instead held a horse sized panther curled around a small little boy that had his face buried in Xander's shoulder, his fists curled around handfuls of soft black fur. Xander was purring and it was ridiculously loud, more so because the sound echoed off of all of the stonework.

Silently, Gambit slid down the wall to sit by Xander's forepaws. He pulled out a deck of cards and quietly shuffled them between his hands as he patiently waited for Harry's crying to slow down and his breathing to even out.

Finally, after the boy had been calm for a while he spoke in a hushed voice.

"Hey petite. Y' ready t' talk about it yet?"

The boy shifted a bit, leaning hard against Xander still, but turned slightly so that he could watch Gambit shuffle his cards without looking directly in his face.

"You know that the first dueling club meeting was being held tonight?"

Gambit nodded. "Oui, de moron was gonna run it."

The boy paused, his face twisting up in confusion. "The moron?" He tilted his head. "Oh! You mean Lockhart…yeah, him. Him and Snape."

Gambit made a face. The boy nodded in agreement and made a face too.

"Anyway. They made me get up on stage to duel Malfoy. Malfoy's a snotty little prat, but he conjured up a snake. I…" the boy paused and then took a deep breath, "I talked to the snake. It was frightened and angry, but I told it not to bite anyone. The snake wasn't too happy with that since it was planning to bite Justin. It listened to me though and moved to slither away."

Gambit tipped his head and glanced over at the boy. The child's face was a picture of confused hurt. "That's a good thing, right?"

The boy shrugged. "I thought so, but no one believes me that I was telling the snake to leave Justin alone. They think I was telling it to bite people."

Confused hurt, painful betrayal and resigned depression battered at his psi-shields.

"They all accused me of being the Heir of Slytherin, of being evil and dark and…" the boy sucked in a wavery breath of air that was half sob, "they said it was just a matter of time until I started killing people."

Gambit sat there a bit and just considered everything that he heard and waited for the boy to calm down again.

"It's hard being different." Gambit turned his head fully and reached up to slide his sunglasses down his nose. Burning red on black eyes glowed in the dim light. "These eyes marked Gambit as different back home. They called him Le Diable Blanc. The White Devil."

He looked away again and began shuffling his cards.

"Bein' different doesn't make y' evil or bad or wrong. Just different, heh?" With a sigh, Gambit tilted his head back against the wall. "Don' mean it don' hurt when people be cruel an' ignorant."

"Did people hurt you when they called you names?"

Gambit paused, shifted and then nodded.

"Oui. It hurt. Mais Gambit find out who his real friends be an' who just lookin' for good times wit' easy ways. Real friends stick by y' durin' de hard times, while de others fade away from y' an' watch t' see if y' sink or swim."

He shuffled his cards and let the boy think about that for a bit.

"Best advice Gambit can give y' is t' use this time t' figure out who will stand by y' side an' who won'. Go ahead an' forgive de ones that won', but don' ever try t' count on them in bad times until they prove they changed."

A pointed look at the boy over his sunglasses.

"Also, find out all about what makes y' different. Don' need or want t' have anymore surprises. De people here think that talkin' t' snakes is bad, but de people here have lots of really dumb an' stupid ideas of what is right an' wrong. Bigotry, bias an' hatred run rampant here. Look into other places when y' research. Bet y' find other places don' hold such backward views on it."

A shrug.

"Never did like Europe, me." Gambit shook his head. "Most bizarre mix of modernization, conservatism and unfounded elitism y' ever see. Prefer New York, Chicago, LA and of course, New Orleans."

The boy seemed to be much less upset and more thoughtful now. Tired, but no longer feeling like he was ready to shatter at any moment.

"*Let de boy cuddle y' a bit. He'll pull himself together an' then wander off t' bed.*"

=Yeah. Thanks Gambit.=

And then Gambit stood up and slid out of the nook, leaving the boy surrounded and protected by a loudly purring giant cat.

**

* * *

**

87 – The Oath

Gambit knew that Methos was going to do something outrageous. The immortal had been furious over the events that happened during the so-called dueling club and had listened with grinding teeth when Gambit and Xander relayed what had happened afterwards when Harry Potter had cried all over Xander. His mood hadn't improved since then. In fact, it got worse.

An overblown article light on facts but heavy on the speculation and the slandering of Harry's reputation started out the day. It continued with the vast majority of the students actively shunning the child and talking loudly and with derision about him. Rumors ran wild and the staff did little to nothing to contain or control it.

Harry was visibly devastated and his tiny circle of friends and supporters tried to shield him, but there were not enough of them and far too many detractors. That the adults seemed to condone the attitude of public social shunning only fueled the fire.

Methos spent a large chunk of time in feverish research on the subject of parselmouths in various cultures, dueling and other varied subjects. By the time he was done, he had written a scathing letter to the editor of the paper that called into question the journalistic integrity of the owner, the editor and the author of the article. He also clearly outlined the facts of the events, the historical truth about parseltongue and listed several famous wizards and witches that were purported to have the gift.

Then Methos hit the Great Hall like an avalanche coming to crash down on everyone's head. He slammed open the double doors at the end of the Hall with a loud bang, drawing everyone's attention and causing all the suits of armor to stand straight in crashing and clanging salute. Righteous indignation poured from his very being.

"I know that all of you are aware of what happened during that debacle masquerading as a dueling club." Methos' voice rang with disdain. "Or…at least you think you know what happened."

Silence echoed around the room like a living thing as everyone stared at Methos. No one even chewed, they just sat there mouths agape. Gambit wasn't sure how Albus would react to Methos' little speech, but the show would probably be a good one.

"Though it was shoddily arranged and completely unorganized," Methos shot a foul glare at Lockhart. "and certain teachers used the event to encourage foul mouthed and spoiled little prats to show off and try to lord their social-status over the other students." Here, Methos' glare shifted to Snape who merely sneered in return.

"That wasn't the big event, though…was it?"

Everyone began to glance over to Harry, only to realize what they were doing and have their eyes snap back to Methos.

"No. The big event was the large venomous snake and the shunning of one of your peers." Now the stares and looks were more prominent.

"Did you all shun the arrogant and foolish child that summoned the venomous snake and then set it loose upon his fellows?" Methos glared around the Great Hall. "No? Well, perhaps you have shunned the incompetent and moronic so-called teacher who irritated and angered the snake before dropping it directly in front of a defenseless student?"

Lockhart tried to fluster and huff, but everyone ignored him beyond a few contemptuous looks.

"Oh, I think I see. You have decided to shun the one student who can speak to snakes. The one that willingly risked his own reputation in public in order to compel the venomous snake to move away from his fellow students and not bite anyone."

Some people had the grace to look ashamed. Methos merely plastered a falsely thoughtful look on his face and nodded his head.

"Right. Because logic, common sense and good manners aren't needed here. This is the Wizarding World, so obviously we'll be going with superstition, bigotry and lies."

"Well," a voice spoke out from the Ravenclaw table, "how are we supposed to know what he said to that snake? I mean, none of us can understand parseltongue. Potter could have been saying anything."

"Did you ask him?" Methos' tone said loudly that he doubted the student had bothered.

Stepping further into the Great Hall, Methos strode up to the Gryffindor table and stopped in front of a completely embarrassed Harry Potter.

"Potter. Stand up, let everyone see you boy." Methos stood next to him, his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Ever hear of an oath?"

"Um…yeah, but…well, not really. No real details, that is."

Methos nodded. "It's when someone swears upon their magic. The statement must be true, completely true, or the consequence is the loss of their magic." Methos paused and looked into the child's eyes, wanting him to understand to seriousness of the situation. "Would you be willing to swear an oath?"

Harry Potter looked around the Great Hall then up at Methos. Nodded. He pulled his wand and held it up.

"I, Harry Potter, swear on my magic that I did not tell that snake to attack Justin. I also swear that, to the best of my knowledge, I am not the Heir of Slytherin."

Harry's wand lit up in a flash of magic. Immediately, the students began to mutter and talk. At least until Methos patted Harry on the shoulder and began to walk away. Silence descended as he reached the doors to the Great Hall.

"Now…don't you all feel really ashamed? Do you regret your arrogance, ignorance and wrongful sense of superiority?" He looked around. "No, I guess you don't. You're wizards and witches, after all."

And then he was gone.

**

* * *

**

88 – Basilisk Hunting

It hadn't taken long to decide on a plan of action.

The snake demon was obviously moving through the walls via a series of ancient water pipes and air ducts that were meant to move clean air and water through the castle. Some of the pipes and ducts were still in use by the castle; others had their magic lying dormant. Sometime in the recent past, the castle had been retrofit with modern plumbing…or the magical equivalent thereof. While this allowed for a greater number of newer and more efficient bathrooms, it also left a lot of old water pipes and cisterns empty and dry.

Perfect for a giant snake demon to slither through.

The only problem was figuring out just where the thing was making its nest. There were a lot of blank spots on the old maps and technical drawings of the castle. Some were caused by missing building plans; others were there because of changes made to the building without being completely recorded. And if rumors were to be believed, some areas of the castle were never recorded at all.

So, how did they decide to resolve all this mess? Easy. Use magic to punch a hole through a wall into one of the old access tunnels that ran through the heart of the castle. From there, the whole group; Albus, Severus, Minerva, Filius, Methos, Xander and Gambit tramped through the tunnels, winding down further and further into the belly of the castle. Several crates full of roosters floated along behind them.

Eventually, the tunnel branched. One branch was fairly small, a side access pipe instead of a tunnel. Sound echoed eerily and it was hard to tell exactly where this dank and dusty spot was in relation to the rest of the castle. Most likely somewhere in Slytherin territory.

Finally it was decided to split the group up. Filius would go with Minerva and Xander in cat form down the smaller pipe while the rest of the group continued along in the larger main access tunnel. Gambit wasn't too thrilled with the idea, but it really was the best one they had.

So he had followed behind Methos who somehow managed not to run his sword through Severus' back despite the snippy nasty remarks the man constantly made. Gambit was fairly certain that if the demon snake tried to eat the greasy asshole, that Methos would let it. Still, the path wound ever downwards, dark and dank, crates of floating roosters bringing up the rear.

Then the tunnel spilled out into a dank dungeon-like room with a high ceiling and rough worked stone walls. The bones of lots of small dead animals littered the floor and Gambit couldn't help but wonder how many of them were wild and how many were lost pets. The far wall, though, was the most interesting.

There was a huge circular door. It easily stood two and a half stories tall. It had the most elaborate and bizarre locking mechanism that Gambit had ever seen. And as a professional thief, that said a lot. It seemed that a series of iron snakes barred the door, holding it tightly closed. Like most magical locks, there was no place to use a pick.

Albus and Severus both cast a long series of unlocking spells at the door. Gambit was actually impressed at the number and variety of them. The door, however, remained locked and closed.

"Want Gambit t' blow it?"

"Hmmm? What do you mean, dear boy?"

Gambit shrugged, glanced over at the door and looked back at the wizard.

"Gambit charge de snakes an' de snakes go boom. No snakes an' de door will open. Easy squeezy; home in time for pie."

Severus, of course, disparaged Gambit's ability to do anything since magic hadn't worked. Albus was concerned with the use of explosions when the full weight of the castle sat over their heads. And if Severus didn't watch his nasty mouth, Gambit was going to charge the man's own wand, shove it up his nose and watch the guy's head explode.

The debate ended when several loud thumps and shouts could be heard coming from the other side of the door. It was hard to make out exactly what was happening, the walls and door being far too thick for sound to travel clearly. The sudden ringing bang was easy to hear though. It was the rush of thoughts and emotions pouring along the psi-link that really caught his attention, though.

"Xander's in there! Somethin' big is happenin'."

He turned wide eyes on Methos and watched the immortal's face clear of expression and turn hard with determination.

"Gambit! Blow the door!"

Ignoring Albus and Severus, Gambit responded to Methos' order and ran up to the door. He put his hand on the first snake he could reach and concentrated hard. He needed to charge all of the snakes with a low even charge. He didn't want to pull the castle down on their heads, but he needed the door open. Finally, it was ready.

"Take cover!"

He and Methos pulled the two wizards back away from the door and ducked down behind some old debris. Two heartbeats later, the charge on the door blew with an echoing bang. Dust rained down from the ceiling and a grinding, groaning noise could be heard.

Gambit didn't even wait for the dust to settle; he dashed back towards the door, kicked away some bits of stone and began to pull on the doors. They were so big and so heavy that they barely budged.

"Gambit, my dear boy. Move aside. I think now is the time for magic."

And with that, Albus pointed his wand at the doors, said some strange word and they swung open easily and swiftly. Weapons ready, the foursome walked through the doors ready for anything…only to come up short.

The room was a strange combination of throne room and dungeon. A narrow length of stonework walkway lined with snake statues ran down the middle of a water reservoir. At the far end was a huge statue of a man's head, its mouth gaping open with a monstrously large dead snake draping out of it like some grotesque tongue. Filius, Minerva and Xander were standing there next to it, clothes dusty, hair disheveled and with several angry roosters with their feathers ruffled fluttering about and making a god-awful racket.

Xander turned and leveled a fairly mild glare at Gambit.

"We'd just gotten the stupid roosters quiet and contained when you blew up the door and freaked them all out again." He rolled his eye. "Thanks ever so much for that."

Gambit grinned. "No problem, mon ami."

**

* * *

**

89 – Preparations

Albus would be casting the portal spell for them soon.

Xander was a little leery of leaving such a magic rich environment. Understandable when you considered that his ability to become human depended on having access to a certain level of magic. Gambit just hoped that the next world they went to was the one they wanted. His world.

The sudden shifting of how the psi-link worked had really freaked out both himself and Xander. Body-swapping was only funny in the movies and it was downright dangerous for Xander to land in Gambit's body and lose control of his bio-kinetic charge. It was Gambit's hope that Charles Xavier or Jean Grey-Summers could help.

"Hey, guys!" Methos' voice called from the next room. "Come tell me what you think."

Wandering over Gambit found Methos sitting at a small writing table. He was leaning over a sheet of parchment.

"I wanted to send a time-delayed letter to the muggleborn students here. I figure if I set it to be delivered the next morning…well, we'll be gone so Albus won't be able to retaliate."

Gambit and Xander exchanged looks. "Um…I don't know if I like the sound of that. What's the letter say that you think it would require retaliation?"

Methos smirked, picked up the parchment and read the letter aloud.

_Dear Muggleborn Student;_

_My name is Methos and I was one of the travelers that recently stayed here at Hogwarts. As a true outsider here, I was able to see this world from a rather unique perspective. As an adult, I was experienced enough to ask certain questions that would not occur to a child to ask. The things I discovered are things that I feel you should be aware of._

_Did you realize that by being muggleborn you are automatically relegated to second-class citizen status? This means that you are legally barred from certain jobs, positions and advancements in both the government and business. As a muggleborn you cannot become Minister of Magic, a member of the Wizengamot or the Head of a Ministry Department. _

_While you are allowed to be employed by a business or rent a small flat, you are barred from owning a business or land. Your taxes will be significantly higher and your pay scale will be significantly lower than your pureblood co-workers even if you are better trained and qualified. Individually, it doesn't sound too terrible, but taken together this will limit the amount of money you can earn, relegating you to a life of poverty and deprivation._

_Also, if you are accused of breaking a law, you will pay the highest fines and suffer the harshest punishments. Unlike your pureblood counterparts, you cannot purchase a pardon and escape Azkaban. This double standard will follow you everywhere._

_Just as you carry a social and political stigma, so will your children and grandchildren. _

_Research and statistics show that only 2% of all muggleborn students that graduate from Hogwarts stay in the British Wizarding World. Some of them return to the muggle world, but others often leave to live in the United States, Australia or New Zealand. It should be noted that, unlike the European Wizarding communities, those 3 countries have no restrictions on muggleborns, nor do they have laws that show extreme bias against them._

_I would advise you all to look into relocating yourselves outside of Britain and the European Wizarding communities. All you will find here is bias, bigotry, hatred and scorn. However it doesn't have to be that way. You can find a life of happiness and fulfillment that includes magic. Just not here._

_Don't take my word for it. Look into these claims. Research the laws here and in other countries. Talk with other muggleborns, those who stayed in the Wizarding World and those who didn't. Don't just accept that things are the way they are supposed to be. You are better than that and deserve more._

_Methos_

Gambit and Xander exchanged looks before grimacing.

"It's harsh. Probably true, but harsh."

Methos shrugged and nodded. "True, but it's better that they realize this now and can take the time to make plans. As it stands, most of them graduate and are shocked to find that the bias is not just schoolyard bullies and house rivalries."

**

* * *

**

90 – The Portal part 2

Albus' casting of the dimensional portal felt different than Cassandra's casting. The spell was basically the same, and had only been modified slightly. This was partly because Albus' vast wealth of magical knowledge far outstripped Xander's or Cassandra's and it was also partly because he had a much finer control over his abilities. He also had Minerva and Filius to help with the preparations.

Oddly enough, no one had ever taken magical research in this direction on this world, so the entire concept was new and fresh. Albus predicted that the research notes of the spell and recordings of the actual casting would be studied intensely. Theoretically this would open up whole new avenues of research if the Ministry didn't ban or restrict it.

Gambit didn't really care about all that, although he supposed that it was a fair trade. Xander was walking away with a much greater understanding of both runes and arithmancy after working with Albus to recreate and refine the spell. And that was on top of the shape-shifting skills he had worked so hard to learn from Minerva.

Still, Gambit was glad to be leaving. Any goodwill they had gained from helping to kill the basilisk would be gone if they killed Lockhart or Snape, and that was becoming a bigger danger with each day they stayed. Then again, the danger of Methos trying to start a revolution was growing daily as well.

Gambit didn't have to worry about any of that now. The SUV was packed with all of their things and supplies, including a large pile of basilisk skin that Xander was sure would make great armor. Something about snakeskin vests lined with Kevlar or ceramic plates.

Xander had shape-shifted already since he wasn't sure how much magic would be available in the next world and he wanted to be human for as long as possible. Because of that, all three of them were planning to ride inside the SUV. Potentially dangerous, but not too much.

"Gambit!"

Looking away from watching the giant blue portal swirling around in a funnel shape in front of them, he frowned at Methos.

"Buckle up! Albus can't hold the portal forever. We gotta go now."

Rolling his eyes, Gambit buckled up the seatbelt and braced himself for impact. Xander whooped in delight from the backseat and Methos started up the SUV. Swirling winds buffeted the large vehicle as they aimed down the twisting maw of the hole in reality.

Grinning like loons, they crossed the threshold.


	10. GMX X

**The Adventures of Gambit, Methos and a cursed one-eyed cat named Xander**

Genre: crossover, series of related ficlets

Characters: Gambit (X-Men), Methos (Highlander), and Xander (Buffy)

Rating: R (to be safe – each ficlet varies)

Disclaimer: I don't own any character from any of the various fandoms. I'm not making $ from this.

Summary: Gambit's life takes a turn for the surreal. Then stuff happens.

**

* * *

**

91 – Wild Ride

Gambit wasn't sure that he was going to survive this insanity. His body felt as if it had been stretched out beyond the breaking point. He was squashed thin as paper and he was willing to swear that his head was at least forty feet away from his boots. It was painful in the most bizarre way, because it also felt good. All his nerve endings were jangling, unsure if they were signaling pain or pleasure.

Xander was screaming inside of his head, one loud long wail of emotion. Pleasure and pain, fear and joy crashed onto the shores of his mind in rushing waves that threatened to drown him. It was all he could do not to get lost in it, to become a part of it. Gambit was terrified that the stress would trigger a body-swap and having Xander loose control of his charge now would kill them all. It might even backwash through the portal and kill Albus, Minerva and Filius.

Methos was screaming in his ear, one long loud wail of emotion. The immortal was gripping the steering wheel of the SUV, but it too was being stretched out of shape. Elongating like the humans, the vehicle's body shrieked and creaked as metal and plastic complained of the abuse.

Colors and light began to strobe violently and Gambit's stomach churned even as his sensitive eyes throbbed. Gravity hiccupped and let go of them all and he was suddenly grateful that Methos insisted that he buckle up. His long hair floated all around his face and he knew with certainty that the seatbeat was the only thing keeping him from bouncing around the inside of the vehicle.

"Ohhhh Helllll!"

Methos' shout was his only warning before gravity reasserted itself in a dramatic way, slamming his body down against the seat. In an instant, the stretched out feeling disappeared and his body slammed back into its normal shape and size. His nerve endings sizzled in both relief and pain, his limbs twitching with muscle spasms.

One last flash of light followed by a deafening crash of sound and the SUV shot out of the portal like a rock from a sling-shot. They soared through the air to land with a huge bounce and the groaning of metal. Methos fought the wheel, his feet working the gas and brake petals franticly as he tried to wrestle the huge truck into submission. Clumps of grass and dirt flew up from the ground and the SUV almost tipped over, but with much swearing and cursing, Methos was able to bring it under control.

Slowly, they rolled to a stop.

The headlights shone brightly against a white marble fountain that was a mere two feet from the front bumper. Shimmering water flowed in a beautiful cascade from the top and down into the pool below. Beyond that, the nighttime vision of a lush landscaped yard full of sweet scented flowers and neatly trimmed hedges gave way to a large multistory mansion with three main wings. It was a perfect picture of wealth and class.

"Home." Gambit looked around with wide eyes and a growing smile. "Gambit finally home."

That's when the alarm system went off. Blinding floodlights washed over the yard and a loud computerized voice announced their presence.

"Intruder Alert! Tesseract activity detected! Perimeter breach on the East Lawn! Intruder Alert! All teams; scramble, scramble, scramble!"

**

* * *

**

92 – Welcoming Committee

"Merde!"

Gambit scrambled to unbuckle his seatbelt and turned startled wide-eyes on his friends.

"We about t' have some company. Whatever y' do, don' attack. Let me talk t' them. De X-Men won't hurt no one if they just visitin'. We just set off de alarms though, so…"

Gambit opened the door to the SUV and stepped out into the blinding bright floodlight and held his hands up, arms wide. Storm, Phoenix, Angel and Rogue flew over the lawn from four different directions. Cyclops, Wolverine, Bishop and Iceman came across the ground from the mansion.

For half a moment, Gambit was extremely aware of his two friends standing just behind him and the vast power and skill rushing at them. Then his eyes alighted upon Storm and a wave of homesickness washed over him followed by a huge relief. He had missed her so very much.

"'Ello, padnat." His smile was wide enough to split his face as she landed before him. "Bon Dieu, Gambit has missed his Stormy. So good t' be home."

She looked shocked and reached out to run the fingers of one hand along the side of his face. Gambit leaned into the touch.

"Oh Goddess, Gambit…" her voice shook slightly. "Is that really you?"

"Oui Stormy."

Gambit frowned slightly. He could feel shock, confusion and suspicion radiating from all the X-Men.

"Y' didn't think Gambit let a lil' thing like a dimensional portal stop him from comin' home, did y'?"

"Wolverine?" Cyclops' voice was like a whip.

Logan glanced over at the X-Men's field leader, grunted and stepped towards Gambit. Xander stepped closer and growled low in his throat, his eye narrowing as he watched the feral mutant closely. Logan eyed him right back before leaning forward slightly and inhaling deeply.

"Smells like Gumbo." He stepped back and Xander stopped growling. "Other scents mixed in, but it's the Cajun."

Several people gasped and Phoenix's voice rang out, "But how?…"

Someone shifted through the crowd of X-Men until they could stand in the light. He was tall, had deep auburn hair and wore a long dark trench coat. He tipped his head up and exposed his burning red on black eyes and smirked.

"Dat's what Gambit would like t' know."

Gambit's jaw dropped open in shock. It was like looking into a mirror. Well, almost. The imposter was slightly different. His hair was very long and tied back in a ponytail. Gambit hadn't worn his own hair that long for a few years. He also seemed leaner, with the longer muscles of a thief instead of the bulkier and heavier muscle of a fighter. It was like a glimpse into his own past.

"Remy?" Xander's voice was both confused and ironic. "You didn't tell me you had an evil twin."

**

* * *

**

93 – Gambit on Gambit

"Gambit don' have a twin, or a lil' brother or anything like that." Gambit gestured to the long haired version of himself. "This be an imposter. Maybe a skrull."

"Moi?" The other Gambit's eyes went wide. "A skrull? Y' de one that drive outta de Tesseract like de bats of hell be after y'. Maybe y' a phalanx?"

Gambit waved the very idea away and turned his head slightly to bitch at Cyclops.

"Oh, this a very nice welcome home. Gambit fall into de portal an' get sucked away t' a different reality. He spend months workin' t' get back wit' two unplanned detours. De first through zombie hell an' de other through insane magic world only t' finally make it back an' find that a skrull be sleepin' in his bed."

Wolverine pulled a cigar from somewhere and growled, "Quit being a drama queen, Cajun." He pointed at the long haired Gambit with the cigar. "He ain't a skrull. I'd smell it if he was."

Gambit waved his arms in the air and huffed out a deep breath. "Then what de hell, Logan?"

Wolverine shrugged, seemingly unconcerned.

"Maybe," Methos' voice was very controlled as if he was very tense and on edge. "we landed in the wrong timeline? Or perhaps in the future?"

"He's got a point," Xander said. "Each dimensional reality has a multitude of timelines. We were aiming for the timeline you got pulled from, but maybe we missed?"

Gambit considered it and then shook his head. "Non. This is home. I can feel it."

It was at that point that Beast bounded over.

Methos and Xander blinked at him. "Whoa." Xander muttered. "Big and blue."

Methos snorted lightly.

Beast came to a stop next to the group, looked from one Gambit to the other Gambit, reached up to adjust his glasses and then looked back and forth again. "Oh my stars and garters."

"Okay people," Cyclops' voice took on that tone that said he was about to issue some orders. "We need to get to the bottom of this mess. I can handle dimensional travelers; I can handle time travel too. Imposters and spies are something different, so we need to get the truth of the matter straightened out."

Gambit glared at other Gambit.

"Fine, mon ami. Bein."

Other Gambit glared back and then stepped over to Rogue and put his arm around her. "Come on, Chere. We go wait for Scotty t' tell us t' kick their asses for bein' spies."

Rogue, looking very shocked and confused simply nodded her head and allowed herself to be led away.

**

* * *

**

94 – The Nicest Prison Ever

"I so totally don't like this place."

Xander's voice was tight and he paced around the small apartment like set of rooms with a grimace on his face. He radiated tension and Gambit knew that if he had been in his cat form he would have had his fur all fluffed up along his back and scruff. He'd probably be hissing and spitting too.

"It's all weird in my head now. It's like you're there, but not. Ya know?"

Gambit nodded.

"This is a sort of holding cell. Only, not for enemies. It has a dampening field around it t' suppress mutant abilities. De X-Men use it for when mutants can't control their powers good."

"Oh?" Methos' voice was curious, but Gambit could hear the tension underneath.

"Oui. De dampening field can be adjusted t' different levels t' help de mutant learn control. Right now it's on high enough t' effect de psi-link."

Xander paced back towards them, his eye darting back and forth as if looking for some sort of escape route.

"So…why put us here?"

Gambit shrugged.

"Don' know for sure. Think it's a way t' say, please stay here in comfort, but don' use any unknown power t' influence us while we research which Gambit is de real one."

"Well," Methos' sat down on the sofa and leaned back with a sigh. "It really is the nicest prison cell I've ever been in."

Xander snorted and kept pacing. Gambit wondered if he was also mentally poking at the dormant psi-link. The link was still there; but it was quiet, dark. It was unnerving to be alone in his head after so long with someone else there to share his thoughts, feelings and even his dreams and nightmares. It was odd to think back and realize that when the psi-link was first created all he wanted to do was sever it. Now…now he felt strangely incomplete.

"Look Gambit," Methos' calm voice broke into his train of thought, "I know that you like and trust these people, but…they did lock us away in here, so…"

Gambit sighed and ran his hand down over his face.

"I know y' don' know them, mon ami. But Stormy, she won' let anything bad happen t' us. Not just 'cause she love Remy, but also 'cause she believe in justice an' fairness. We did nothin' wrong. Just showed up an' asked for help, that's all."

He tugged at his hair and looked up at the ceiling. "De only reason we in here is 'cause there's a double of Gambit. Cyclops will get t' de bottom of this mess. He's stubborn an' strict an' a bit of a stick in de mud, but he's a good man an' he won' rest until he knows de truth, if for no other reason than t' protect de team."

"Well, I hope it doesn't take very long." Xander snarled and threw himself into an overstuffed lazy-z-boy chair. "I hate it in this room."

**

* * *

**

95 – Storm

A knocking on the door leading into the suite of power-dampened rooms was the only warning before it swung open and Storm pushed in a metal rolling cart with several covered plates on them. She didn't even make it halfway to the table when Gambit jumped up off of the couch and dashed over to her.

"Stormy!" She giggled as he picked her up in a hug and swung her around in a circle. "Ah, bon Dieu, Gambit missed you so much padnat."

Gambit set her down and leaned forward and kissed her cheek.

"There were times when I doubted that I'd ever see y' again, Stormy. It 'bout broke my heart."

Storm reached up and squeezed his shoulder. "I just wish I had known that you were in trouble. For obvious reasons…well, I'm glad you're home."

She turned and pushed the cart towards the table again. "Oh, and do not call me Stormy."

Gambit smiled widely. "Oui, Stormy."

Storm rolled her eyes and began removing the covers and putting the plates out on the table. They held roast beef, corn and green beans. Next came bowls of salad, four glasses and a pitcher of iced tea. She waved everyone over.

"So, Gambit. Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"

"Ah, pardon moi." Gambit grabbed her hand, kissed it and gestured to her while smiling at Methos and Xander. "This is mon soeur, Ororo Monroe, mais everyone call her Stormy."

She elbowed him in the ribs. "Storm, not Stormy." One white eyebrow rose up imperiously. "You would do well to remember that, or you will find yourself up to your elbows in mud helping me fertilize the back garden."

Gambit smirked at her. "Of course, padnat."

He gestured across the table. "This is Xander. Gambit an' he met inside of a dimensional portal. Gambit was fallin' in one direction an' Xander was fallin' in de other. We slam into each other an' fell outta de portal an' land on top of Methos." He gestured to the other man.

"Uh huh." She sat down primly and spread a napkin across her lap. "At least when you come to visit me unannounced you climb in through the window like a civilized being instead of just dropping down on me out of a portal."

"While I have to admit I would have preferred the two of them coming in through the window as apposed to squashing me and breaking my couch when they fell out of the ceiling." Methos smiled at her. "I still have to ask, since when is climbing in through the window civilized?"

Xander slapped Methos' arm lightly and hissed, "Don't be rude, man. It's a thief thing." He shrugged. "For all we know it might be insulting not to test a person's security by refusing to break in."

Methos' gave Xander an odd look that was half amused and half incredulous. "So you're saying that when in Rome?..."

Xander shrugged philosophically. "When in Rome, wearing bed linens is a fashion must. When in the midst of a den of thieves; climb in through people's windows and steal their shampoo or something. You know, just to fit in and stuff."

Storm giggled quietly, a hand over her mouth. "I wouldn't recommend trying that. It would most likely upset the other residents greatly. Truthfully, I was a thief during my childhood, but have since retired from that occupation. Currently, only Gambit chooses to pursue that line of work."

Gambit smirked. "Be funny though. Imagine Warren an' Betsy discovering that all their beauty products be missin'."

Gambit and Storm shared a brief laugh over that, then Storm's smile faded and she gave Gambit a serious look.

"I feel I should warn you, however. Cyclops is very concerned that there are two Gambit's running around. Tomorrow will prove to be a long day. He has asked Beast to perform several tests to be certain that you are not a clone or someone who has been altered to look like Remy LeBeau. He also plans to have you tell him the entire story of what has happened since you left here. Psylocke and Phoenix have already agreed to sit in on the interview."

Gambit sighed and nodded.

"I figured as much." He looked over at her. "Y' be there as well?"

She smiled and laid a hand gently on his arm. "Of course."

**

* * *

**

96 – The Med Lab

Gambit felt soft sweet relief roll over him as he stepped out of the power suppression rooms and into the hallway. No mutant enjoyed having their power dampened unless they really were out of control. The buzzing and crackling of bio-kinetic energy sizzled along his skin and down his spinal column even as the psi-link woke up. He could feel the tension in both himself and Xander slowly fade away.

It was a short journey down the metal lined corridors to the Med Lab and Gambit pointed out a few things of interest to his friends even as he flirted with Jean and Storm. Walking into the Med Lab, Gambit smiled even as Methos and Xander drew up short.

"Bonjour M'sieur Bete."

Beast bounded across the room and flashed a fang filled smile.

"Good morning, my Cajun compatriot."

Xander blinked his eye rapidly. "Whoa! Big, blue and furry wasn't just a dream. He's really real."

The big blue furred mutant wearing the stark white lab-coat adjusted his glasses and tipped his head to the side slightly. "Why yes, I am."

Xander smiled and looked over at Gambit. "I guess you're right. They really wouldn't mind if I lost my hold on this form and reverted back into a cat." The smile faded into a worried frown. "I just don't know if I'd be able to get all the way back to human here."

Gambit reached out and squeezed Xander's shoulder in support.

"Don't worry too much about it, mon ami. No one here will turn their backs if y' can' get all the way back t' human. An' this man here," Gambit gestured to the furry blue doctor, "is Doctor Henry McCoy. Hank here specializes in both genetics and virology. If anyone can help unravel de mysteries of de Progenitor Virus, it'd be him."

Beast adjusted his glasses once again and turned a serious look at Gambit. "Progenitor Virus?"

Gambit nodded and reached into a pocket of his trench coat and pulled out a CD. He handed it over to Beast. "Oui. All de information that Methos was able to find on it be on this disk. That's your copy. We can talk about it in more detail later, since Remy know that y' got a bunch of tests planned for him today. For now, just keep in mind t' treat any dealin's wit' Xander as if he has Legacy. De Progenitor Virus is blood-borne."

Beast eyed the disk seriously and then carefully laid it on his desk by his computer. "Indeed. I look forward to studying this and talking with you all about this virus."

Straightening his lab-coat, Beast gestured Gambit to the main examining table. With a grin, Gambit hopped up.

"However, you are quite correct in assuming that I have several tests to perform on you today. I will need a sample of your blood and I will be running a few scans as well. This is mostly to compare to older scans that I have of both your unique mutant physiology as well as your unique mutant x-factor in your DNA sequence."

A pained look crossed Beast's furry face. "I will also be testing to see if you show the

damage in your chromosomes which is characteristic with clones and cloning procedures."

Gambit paused and grew very still for a long moment, his eyes lost in thought.

"Bete?"

"Yes?"

"Y' might want t' run de clone tests on de other Gambit."

Beast looked up from the equipment he was gathering. "Oh? Any particular reason why?"

"Oui." Gambit gestured vaguely with his hands. "Didn't get a real good look at de fake Gambit, me. Mais there was something…off. Like his hair. Remy hasn't worn his hair that long since he was a pup. Even now after many months of not getting' it cut, it still only a few inches below his shoulders. Fake Gambit's hair is almost long enough t' reach his waist. Plus…"

Gambit shrugged and pushed his sunglasses up and gestured to his eyes, running a fingertip along his temple. "Hate t' admit it, me…mais Gambit gettin' old. Got lines an' crow's feet by his eyes." A sheepish grin washed across his face. "Too many years squintin' in de bright light, heh?"

His tone turned serious. "That boy couldn't be no more than eighteen or nineteen years old."

Beast shared a long measured look with Storm and Jean, but Gambit was unsure what it meant.

**

* * *

**

97 – Long Story Short

It had been a long morning in the Med Lab followed by a filling hot lunch. Now Gambit found himself sitting at a table between Xander and Methos with Cyclops, Jean and Psylocke across from them. Storm sat off to one side with Beast.

"So…" Cyclops' visor flashed red for a brief moment, the only indication that his emotions were stirred up by the mess they found themselves in. "Want to give me a brief summary of where you've been and how you arrived here via tesseract?"

"Oui, Cyke." Gambit shifted in his seat to get comfortable. "First thing though, we didn' come t' de mansion by tesseract."

Cyclops frowned and Gambit shrugged lightly.

"Well, not de kind of tesseract that y' used t' seeing. Tesseract is a doorway from one place t' another that warps de space-time continuum. Despite all de work Sinister did t' refine de process, it has its limitations. Can go t' any place in de world wit' enough power an' it can even go backward an' forward in time, though not by a whole lot." Gambit narrowed his eyes in though, "Maybe a week at de most."

"Interesting. Most of that is well known, although the time travel thing has only ever been speculated. What does it have to do with how you arrived? You said you didn't come by tesseract."

"Oui." Gambit smirked. "Came here by portal. De power source was magic harnessed into a specific spell meant t' open de portal which was t' act as a doorway t' here from a completely separate dimensional reality."

Cyclops sucked in a breath of air and leaned back in his chair. Jean and Psylocke both grew still.

"Scott," Jean's voice was a whisper. "I'm not picking up any sense of falsehood from any of them."

He cocked his head toward Psylocke. "No lies and…" she tilted her head and frowned slightly, "I'm picking up an image of the three of them in their vehicle, while an old man with a long white beard is chanting at a growing swirl of energy and light."

Gambit, Xander and Methos all smirked.

"De old man be called Albus. He was a wizard in de third dimensional reality Gambit ended up in."

Cyclops leaned forward again and rested his elbows on the table, folding his hands in front of him.

"Why don't you start at the beginning Gambit. Take us through it bit by bit."

"Well," Gambit tipped his head back and scratched at his chin. "It started right here. Gambit was up on de roof an' tryin' t' decide what t' do wit' de mess that was his life. Things wit' Rogue wasn't goin' so good an' Jake was havin' lots of troubles. Couldn't figure out if Gambit should try t' fix things wit' Rogue or fix things wit' Jake."

"You were brooding."

Gambit shrugged and grinned at Jean. "Was a difficult time. Lots of bad ju-ju goin' on an' Gambit caught in de middle of it all. Just wished that Gambit could disappear an' not have t' deal wit' it."

Xander sucked in a deep breath and snapped his head around to stare at him. The psi-link fairly hummed with his focus of attention. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could Jean reached out a hand towards them and gasped loudly.

"Oh my! Gambit! You have a very strong psi-link with your friend." Jean turned to face Psylocke. "Can you feel it?"

Psylocke frowned and raised one hand to her temple in concentration.

"Oh! It's unlike any link I've ever seen."

Gambit frowned and looked from one woman to the other. "That's part of de reason that Gambit want t' get back here so bad. De psi-link wasn't formed by telepathy. It was born from a magic spell gone wrong an' now it's doing things that we can' control. Gambit an' Xander body-swapped. Need help wit' it."

"Wait!" Cyclops held up one hand. "This is all interesting and we will investigate the psi-link for you if you feel it could be a danger. However, right now I want to find out about how we ended up with two versions of the same person."

Everyone settled back a bit except for Xander. He was still staring at Gambit hard.

"Gambit, you never did tell us exactly how you fell into that first portal." Xander's mind was tightly focused and his voice was intense. "Just now you were saying that you had been up on the roof and you wished for something. Do you remember exactly what it was you wished?"

Gambit frowned and tried to think back. He shook his head. "Sorry, mon chat. Been too long an' I can't remember exactly. Just know that I was wishin' that I didn't have t' deal wit' all the crap that was goin' on. Then some strange mutant showed up an' opened de portal under my feet. I fell in it an' slammed into you."

"Gambit, that might not have been a mutant. It sounds like you ran into a vengeance demon. They grant wishes to people, but they always do it in ways that make freaky hellmouthy kinda stuff happen."

"You ran into him inside of a dimensional portal?" Cyclops' tone of voice suggested that the explanation sounded insane.

"Oui. Xander was in a battle on his own world. He fell into a portal too. Gambit and Xander meet in de middle, then we both fell out of de portal onto Methos." Gambit gestured to the immortal. "It took a while t' find a way t' open up a dimensional portal, but somethin' went wrong. Instead of ending up on Xander's world, de three of us end up in a post-apocalyptic world full of virus born zombies."

"Uh-huh."

Gambit rolled his eyes at Cyclops' incredulous tone of voice.

**

* * *

**

98 – Wolverine

A hard bang on the door drew Gambit's attention right before it swung open and Wolverine strode in pushing the same metal meal cart that Storm had used the night before. This time it held several cups and a carafe of coffee, a few plates of pancakes and eggs and several glasses of orange juice.

Gambit smirked and gestured him further into the room.

"Come on in, mon ami. Long time no see, heh?"

Wolverine snorted and pushed the cart over to the table just as Xander wandered into the main room from the bathroom. Instantly, both men's heads snapped around to stare at the other. A low rumbling grow emerged from Xander and Wolverine's eyes narrowed.

"Um…" Gambit's eyebrows rose up as Xander sidled across the room, angling himself to always be able to keep his good eye on Wolverine. He worked his way over so that he had positioned himself between Gambit and the table and with Wolverine standing on the other side of the table from them both. Confused, Gambit reached out and placed a hand on Xander's bare shoulder.

"Xander," Gambit was a bit surprised by the sudden attitude. He couldn't figure out why Xander would consider Wolverine a threat when he'd easily dismissed everyone else they'd met so far. "This is Wolverine. Or Logan. He's a friend an' teammate. He won't hurt Gambit."

Xander's growling stopped, but he didn't step out from in front of Gambit.

"Logan, this is Xander. He's a friend from another dimensional reality."

Wolverine shifted slightly and Xander's whole body tensed up and he shifted as well. Logan's eyes narrowed again.

"There a reason you're acting like I'm gonna attack one o' my best friends, bub?"

The throaty growl started up again. "Dog. You feel like a big, mean dog."

Wolverine peeled back a lip to expose his fangs and growled right back. "I'm not an animal."

Gambit's eyes widened and he tightened his hold on Xander's shoulder.

"Maybe not, mon ami. Mais, Xander is an animal. A cat t' be exact."

That startled Wolverine into stopping his growling and his eyes widened a bit. "Really?"

"Oui," Gambit started to pet the back of Xander's neck and wished that they weren't in the power-suppression rooms. He would love to be able to use the psi-link to help calm and reassure Xander that Wolverine wasn't a threat. "Xander a shape-shifter. Normally, he's an eight an' a half foot tall panther."

Wolverine grunted and stepped back a single step. That seemed to let Xander relax a little bit and the growling stopped again.

"Does your cat always react to ferals this way?"

"Hey!" Xander's voice was indignant. "I'm not his cat! Gambit's my mutant."

Gambit rolled his eyes and grinned. "Oui, mon chat noir, Gambit be your mutant. Just don' be gettin' in a fight wit' Wolverine, heh? He a good guy."

He turned his attention back to Logan. "I think you're de first feral he met, homme."

Wolverine grunted again and considered Xander for a long moment. "I ain't gonna give ya grief for wantin' t' protect the Cajun. He's got plenty o' enemies and it's a good thing that he's got another person in his corner." Wolverine's expression hardened then. "But I ain't one o' them and you'd do best t' remember that, bub."

Xander stared back, unfazed. "You don't attack Gambit or Methos and we won't have a problem. You come after them and I'll suffer through the indigestion caused by swallowing your corpse down bite by bite."

Wolverine nodded his head. "Fair enough. The same goes for you though. You hurt the Cajun and I'll be using your body parts as compost in 'Ro's garden."

Xander nodded as well. "As long as we understand each other."

Wolverine grinned and stuffed a cigar in his mouth. "Enjoy your breakfast. Scooter will be down later t' talk t' ya."

With that, Wolverine turned and walked out. Gambit reached up and ran his hand down his face in exasperation. "Oh, mon Dieu…what Gambit do t' deserve this?"

**

* * *

**

99 – The Video

"It was something that you said the other day."

Cyclops was looking right at Xander. His friend's eyebrow rose up over his eye-patch even as he tipped his head to the side. "Oh?"

Cyclops gestured for the three of them to sit down at the table in the War Room and then nodded towards one of the screens which showed a stilled image of Gambit sitting up on the roof in the fading light of the setting sun.

"When Gambit was explaining how the portal he fell through wasn't a true tesseract, he mentioned making a wish. You said that there was some sort of beings that granted wishes."

Xander nodded his head, an odd look flickering over his face.

"Yeah. Vengeance Demons. Uh, well, they prefer to think of themselves as Justice Demons, but…" He sighed sadly. "They're demons. The granting of wishes is in the form of a curse, not a blessing. That means that things tend to go…well, badly for both the recipient and the victim."

"Demons?" Iceman's voice wasn't disbelieving, just…shocked. "We don't get a lot of that here. Evil mutants, yeah…but not demons."

Xander shrugged.

"Pretty common in my world, then again back home the dimensional barriers have a few weak spots that lead to hell dimensions." Xander grimaced. "I guess my world is just mystically closer to the infernal realms."

"The reason I asked is because we were able to save a recording of Gambit falling into the portal on our security system. We thought that the woman who opened the portal was a new member of the Marauders and that she was using a modified tesseract."

Cyclops paused, took a deep breath and turned to face Gambit.

"We raided a few of Sinister's bases. We found your double in one of them. He was in some kind of machine that kept him in suspended animation. We freed him and brought him home."

Gambit sighed and closed his eyes. "He a clone?"

"We don't know yet. Beast was able to determine that you are not a clone, nor are you someone else that's been surgically altered to appear to be Remy LeBeau. He's going to run the same tests on the other Gambit."

Gambit nodded and he felt a wash of concern and support over the psi-link. He offered up a tiny smile to Xander.

"So what did you need us to do? Why, exactly, are we here?"

Cyclops turned to face Methos, the light glinting off of his visor.

"I was hoping that Xander might be able to tell if the woman in the video is a Vengeance Demon. If she is, then maybe we can find out why she targeted Gambit and why she sent him to you."

Methos stared at him for a moment as if trying to read his intentions. Gambit could understand that. Until you got to know him real well, Cyclops was hard to read because his visor hid so much of his face.

"Okay."

It was the work of a few simple keystrokes to start the video rolling. There was no sound, just image. It showed Gambit sitting on the roof. Well, to be accurate, he was crouched down low over his feet, his knees jutting out in front of him with his trench coat and his hair blowing around him in the breeze. He was just staring out into space, a frown turning down his lips when he snorted and then muttered something to himself.

At that point, a woman appeared in a small burst of smoke and flame. For just the briefest of instances, her face looked out from the screen with a serene beauty with bright shining eyes and a soft smile. Then her face changed. It morphed into a wrinkled and twisted visage with razor sharp teeth and mottled skin.

She spoke and then a swirling portal of powerful energy, light and wind opened up under Gambit and he tumbled inside of it. The woman watched with a smirk on her face as the portal spun, sucking in air and leaves as it swirled hellishly at her feet. Then, in a flash of light the portal simply disappeared as if it had never existed and the woman's face melted back into the beautiful features it had first worn.

Shock, pain, confusion and heartbreaking longing slammed into Gambit's brain over the psi-link and he had to grab hold of the table just to keep from falling out of his chair.

"Anya!"

**

* * *

**

100 – Grief and Confusion

Gambit wasn't surprised in the least when Xander lost control over his form and he shifted into a giant horse-sized panther. Methos' reaction was a raised eyebrow and a frown. The X-Men weren't so calm about it. Especially when Xander knocked over his chair, leapt across the table and pressed his nose against the video monitor and whimpered.

For a long moment Gambit could only hold onto his head and try to purge the massive wave of hurt and grief that was pouring off of his friend.

He became aware of Methos' voice off to the side. Tuning in for a moment he realized that the immortal was trying to explain about all the things that had happened to Xander; the curse, the virus, the lessons to use magic to shift his form back to human. It was a crazy story and a lot to take in, but he couldn't let that be his priority right now.

Instead, Gambit pushed himself out of the chair and walked around the table to where his friend was and leaned into the large shoulder, one hand reaching up to rub gently behind one furry ear.

"*Xander?*"

=Gambit! Oh my God! It was… I think it was Anya.= Excitement, grief, and longing all swirled around Xander's mind and rushed down the psi-link in waves. =The glimpse of her face was so fast and I was so far away. Can you rewind the video and play it again?=

"*Oui, D'accord.*"

Gambit shifted and slid himself between the large upset cat and the monitor and console. A few keystrokes later the image in front of them began to move slowly in rewind mode frame by frame. It didn't take long to get to a frame that showed the woman's face gazing directly into the security camera while she was fully human looking.

=Gods above and below…it's Anya.=

The psi-link hummed with Xander's grief and longing for the woman shown on the monitor, but his confusion was slowly turning to anger and betrayal. Gambit recognized the name Anya. Xander had talked about all of his friends at one point or another, but Anya had been his fiancée, the one he would have married.

"*Xander…I thought y' said that she had died?*"

=She did.= Xander's voice was heartbroken. =She died during the battle with the First when we sealed the Sunnydale Hellmouth and dropped the town into a giant sinkhole.=

They both stared at the still frame of the video. The woman was very beautiful, with flowing dark blonde hair and large shining eyes.

"*Then…maybe this isn't really her?*"

=No…no, it's Anya. I swear, it's her.=

Gambit sighed and leaned into Xander's fur. This didn't make any sense.

"*How does a dead demoness pop up t' conjure a portal t' drop me in? An' why send me t' you? It seems pretty obvious that us slammin' into each other wasn't a coincidence. It had t' have been on purpose.*"

=Yeah. Yeah, you're right. She must have done it for a reason. But why? And why not let me know that she was alive?=

Gambit stilled for a moment and then turned and wrapped one arm around Xander's neck, hugging the giant cat to him as best he could. "*I don't know, mon ami. We find out though. Promise. We find out.*"


	11. GMX XI

**The Adventures of Gambit, Methos and a cursed one-eyed cat named Xander**

Genre: crossover, series of related ficlets

Characters: Gambit (X-Men), Methos (Highlander), and Xander (Buffy)

Rating: R (to be safe – each ficlet varies)

Disclaimer: I don't own any character from any of the various fandoms. I'm not making $ from this.

Summary: Gambit's life takes a turn for the surreal. Then stuff happens.

* * *

**101 – Some Explanations**

Gambit sighed and leaned into Storm's side as she hugged him close. It felt so good to be held by her. He loved her so much and he had missed her like crazy.

Methos sat next to them and smiled softly.

Despite the tense situation, the immortal seemed much calmer and happier here than he was back at Hogwarts. Gambit was fairly certain that he found the whole concept of mutants fascinating and as soon as he was given leave to do so, Methos was most likely going to end up spending a lot of time in Beast's lab. Methos had been a doctor on and off for several centuries and the chance to expand his knowledge of genetics and engineered viruses was just too great a temptation. And truthfully, Gambit couldn't imagine a better teacher for the man than Beast.

Wolverine slowly sidled into the room, looked around, grunted and then walked over to a nearby chair.

"Didn't want t' piss-off yer cat by gettin' too close."

Gambit grinned at the feral mutant. "Pas de problem." He shrugged and gestured out the window to where Xander was laying in a patch of sunshine with Jean and Betsy cooing at him. "De ladies is wit' him right now. He can talk t' them wit' telepathy, so he's tellin' them all about Anya. It ain't easy for him t' talk about, but he needs t' an' de ladies be gentle enough t' help."

Everyone just stared out the window for a moment. They had all lost people close to them and they understood that pain. Having that person show up alive later was also something that they all understood and how it was confusing to have all the grief pulled up again only to battle with a sense of relief and betrayal.

It was Storm that finally broke the silence. "Henry has determined that you are the real Remy LeBeau."

Gambit's attention snapped to her instantly.

"Oh?" His voice was carefully neutral with just a hint of curiosity.

She nodded. "Yes. He tested the Gambit who we rescued and it turns out that he is a clone."

Wolverine grunted. "That shouldn't be a surprise, darlin'. When Gumbo here disappeared, we thought it was some new type o' tesseract that Sinister cooked up. We chased him down and leveled a few labs only t' pull the boy out o' a machine that was keeping him in some type o' coma." He pulled out a cigar and turned it around in his hands as if he was studying it. "We should've realized somethin' was wrong when we woke him up and he had that amnesia."

"Amnesia?"

Storm pulled Gambit tighter to herself and nodded.

"Yes. He had very clear and precise memories up until an accident in Seattle in which a theater was damaged. After that point he had no memories what-so-ever. We, the X-Men, were all strangers to him."

"He called up Jean-Luc an' he confirmed that you'd been a part o' the team fer years." Logan scratched at his chin in thought. "The boy calmed down a bit after that an' Rogue took him under her wing right away. He's been pretty close t' Scooter, which is sorta strange an' he doesn't have yer phobia o' the Med Labs."

Gambit took a deep breath and tried hard not to shudder. He curled his hands into fists and reminded himself that if he lost it he could accidentally blow the house up.

Half a moment later Xander was poking his big furry head into the room.

=Gambit? You okay?=

"*Will be…*"

Xander padded further into the room until he was standing in front of Gambit. He could feel the cat's mind come into sharp focus as he concentrated. Then there was a slow sucking swirl of energy that Gambit knew was Xander pulling in all the available ambient magic. Xander blurred for a moment and then with a soft whooshing sound he shrunk down as far as he could. He ended up the size of a well fed Rottweiler dog.

Storm gasped and Logan grunted in surprise. Xander ignored them both and hopped up onto Gambit's lap. He didn't miss a beat, just threw his arms around Xander and buried his face into the soft fur.

"Remy remember Seattle." His voice was muffled by Xander's shoulder. "His powers went out of control. People died when de theater exploded. Sinister found him, took him t' his labs an' gave him surgery. Did lots of experimentin' an' tests. Gambit didn' want t' be a lab rat, so Sinister give him other ways t' pay him back."

A long pause filled the room with tension and heartbreak.

"That's when he formed de Marauders into a team."

* * *

**102 – Remorse and Forgiveness**

"Je suis desole."

Xander turned his furry head around to look at him and frowned as best he could. His friend was in the form that was midway between cat and human. His 'thundercat' form made human speech and facial expressions difficult. The wave of confused curiosity that washed up on the shores of his mind via the psi-link was clear enough, though.

Methos didn't suffer such limitations, however. He merely sighed and shook his head. "What are you sorry about now, brat."

"Gambit not a brat!" He glared at the immortal. Then sighed and went back to shuffling his deck of cards. "Mais…de tension in de mansion. Everybody all upset an' grievin'. It be Gambit's fault, all this pain."

He dipped his head so that his long bangs would shift forward, hiding his face as he stared at his hands as they shuffled, bridged and arched the cards between them.

Xander snorted.

"Bullshit."

Gambit's head snapped up, confusion and shock on his face.

"Wha' he zzzzaaay." Xander's tail lashed behind him even as his claws flexed in and out of their sheaths.

"Quoi?..."

Methos sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Remy…I…" Methos ran his hand down the front of his face, leaned forward in his seat and pierced him with an intense stare. "These people are hurting, grieving and reliving some horrible memories. That's true. I won't lie to you about that. What you have to understand is that it's an old hurt. An old pain."

"Zzzzee 'rrrrooommmm nnneewww zzzzi'e." Xander's speech was garbled into incomprehension, but his mental words were crisp and clear. =They are just seeing that mess from a whole new side, Rem. Yours. Suddenly, it's about a desperate, young and naive kid that got in too far over his head because he had no one else to turn to. Instead of a turncoat villain, they're faced with a child that was betrayed and left to bleed out from being literally gutted by those he should have been able to trust. Worse, they're being forced to acknowledge that it could have been prevented if they had actually done what they should have in the first place.=

"Non! It not de X-Men's fault!"

Methos tilted his head and shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. Some of the fault is yours, yes. But some of it is Sinister's and some of it is the Marauders. Some of it is the fault of the Morlocks and some of it is the fault of the X-Men."

Gambit glared at him. "Blaming the victims, old man? That's not right."

Methos shrugged. "I can't tell you how many towns and villages that my brothers and I destroyed, how many people we slaughtered because they didn't do anything to protect themselves." He grimaced and his eyes took on a faraway look of regret and memory. "I'm not proud of what we did. I'm not saying that, but… we would be outnumbered 50 to 1 and we still destroyed them. They had no defenses, no warriors or they just screamed and ran."

"Some of the Morlocks did fight, though."

Methos nodded. "I'm sure they did."

There was a long pause, then Methos shifted in his seat. "I know you love Storm and hate to hear bad about her, but…" He paused, sighed and then continued. "She was their leader. Yet, she lived in this mansion with lots of food, lots of training, and with lots of defenses and walls and fortifications. Her so called people lived in the sewers with little to no training, no real defenses or fortifications and they spent most of their time scavenging for food, clothing and scraps out of the trash."

Gambit's eyes were stricken, his face a tragic vision of regret and pain.

=When my friends and I were young, our team was on the front line in our war against the demons.= Xander's tail twitched back and forth, bitter undertones flavoring his mental voice. =A handful of untrained teenagers and one middle-aged man against all the forces the Hellmouth could summon. We had little to no support from the Council, just a lot of stupid rules and orders. They didn't even send money for food, weapons or medical needs. We were expendable and we knew it.=

Gambit keened.

Methos looked him in his red on black eyes. "They have forgiven you despite the pain they feel remembering, because they know that they are just as responsible." He shrugged. "The ones that don't or can't forgive either have their own issues or are lying to themselves about their own culpability."

Gambit looked down at his cards, his eyes unseeing as he relived the slaughter of the Morlocks as his psi-shields came crashing down, overloading his empathy with their fear, hatred and pain even as he could feel the fierce joy and bloodlust of the Marauders.

"It's time to forgive yourself, Gambit."

Gambit looked up at Methos for a long moment. "Don' know if I can yet, homme."

* * *

**103 – Furry Blue Genius**

Xander craned his neck around as he tried to look at everything in Beast's lab all at once. There were a lot of cool shiny machines that looked like they came right out of a sci-fi movie. Other things were much more normal; computers, exam tables, microscopes and sonogram machines.

All in all, Xander was impressed, Methos was fascinated and Gambit just kept reminding himself that this was Hank's lab and as such it was okay and safe to be here. He tried not to let himself get freaked out or let his memories of Sinister's labs start poking too hard.

"What…what is this?"

Gambit looked over towards Methos and the large piece of equipment he was standing in front of and shrugged. "Shi'ar medical scanner."

Methos' expression let him know just how not helpful that bit of information was. That didn't stop him from turning back to study the thing further. Gambit watched him for a bit tapping his foot and trying not to feel naked and vulnerable just by being in the Med Lab. Finally he couldn't stand around any more and wandered to the back room where Beast had his office.

"M'sieur Bete?"

Beast looked up from his computer screen, pushed his glasses up and rubbed at his eyes before dropping the glasses back down and smiling gently.

"Oh, there you are Gambit. I was just going over the information on the CD you brought for me. Very interesting research material; complex and ingenious, but quite diabolical at the same time."

Xander padded over and sat down at Gambit's feet, his cat form shrunk down to his original size. Methos, however, didn't seem to care overly much about staying out of the way. Instead, he pushed past his two friends in the doorway until he was inside of Beast's office and then stood so that he could look at the computer screen over the large furry scientist's shoulder.

"Oui. De virus was running rampant over de second reality Gambit went t'. De whole world was filled wit' victims of de T-virus." Gambit shuddered. "Truly, it was out of control an' de reanimated corpses of de victims was everywhere. Xander was lucky in that he caught de Progenitor Virus instead. It don't rot de body or reanimate de flesh of de person once they die."

Beast's eyes shifted from Gambit to Xander, his smile softened even though his blue eyes were still intense and curious.

"Indeed. From what I have been able to determine so far, the Progenitor Virus acts as a catalyst for mutation, but it is very unstable."

"Exactly." Methos' voice was soft, but focused. "From the research I was able to do before we escaped that reality, it seemed that the virus was very unpredictable in whom it would affect and mutate. The actual mutation itself tended to fall into certain patterns that were slightly easier to predict. For instance, animals seemed to gain a large growth spurt just as Xander did. Humans, on the other hand, tended to fall into three separate categories; growth spurt, enhanced strength and speed, or enhanced senses and intelligence."

He paused, his eyes growing slightly haunted as memories rose up. "The project was abandoned because of the unpredictability in determining whether a person would actually mutate from exposure. Only about 10% of the test subjects acquired a mutation. That's when they began the research which created the T-virus."

Beast sighed and then nodded. "It is often disheartening to see how much evil men can do in the name of science and progress. Sometimes it is not enough to ask if something can be done, we must also ask if something should be done."

There was a long pause as everyone considered the wisdom of Hank McCoy's words, then Gambit sighed and reached out to squeeze one large lab-coat covered shoulder.

"Gambit agree wit' y' mon ami. Now, we left t' pick up de pieces of their short-sightedness, heh?"

Beast reached up and patted Gambit's hand gently.

"Very true, my friend. And for that, I need to understand this virus better in general as well as to determine exactly how it is affecting your feline companion in particular." He smiled down at Xander apologetically. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to need to collect a blood sample, both from your feline form as well as your human form. I am curious to see if the virus affects you differently in your two separate forms."

* * *

**104 – Telepathy**

Gambit hated telepaths.

Well, okay, so he hated the idea of telepathy more than the actual telepaths. Except for Sinister. He didn't like him. Or the Shadow King. Or Lady Mastermind. Or Cable and his psycho clone Stryfe. Most of all he hated the Antiquary.

And now that he thought about it, he wasn't too fond of Psylocke either.

He liked Jean and Professor Xavier well enough. He just wasn't real fond of the idea of them waltzing through his mind and peering at his memories. The very idea gave him the heebie-jeebies, to be honest.

His distaste for telepathy and for telepaths could be traced back to his childhood and the abuse he'd suffered at the hands, and mind, of the Antiquary. The ancient sorcerer had extended his own life by feeding off of the mental energy of other people. In time he'd found that he could get more energy for less effort if he fed from mutants with psi abilities. That's when he had gone about creating his collection of mutant children, of which a young and innocent Gambit had been one.

He had escaped to the streets of the Big Easy and lived a life on the edge running with the feral children in Fagan's gang before his bio-kinetic charge power kicked in. At that point the charge power had done something to augment his rudimentary psi-shields leaving him practically undetectable to telepaths.

Over time his psi-shields had developed and grown in strength in order for him to keep his charm under control, but even without them his bio-kinetic charge would keep telepaths out of his head. That's what made the fact that he now had a psi-link with another mind so shocking. Technically, it should have been impossible for another mind to even have found his, let alone link to it.

And that's why he and Xander were stuck inside the mansion on a nice sunny day while Jean and Psylocke psychically studied their link with their mutant telepathy. They were trying to unravel the mystery of their psi-link and discover how it could be better controlled by the two men.

"If you would please pay attention and stop ogling me?"

Xander gaped at Psylocke before turning an incredulous eye to Gambit.

=She's the one walking around in a purple thong-cut teddy and thigh-high boots! If she didn't want to be ogled, she should have put on some effing clothes!=

Gambit grinned and shuffled his deck of cards some more. "*Just smile an' nod, mon chat. It's best not t' argue wit' a femme that can slice y' mind t' ribbons. Even if she do be walkin' about in her unmentionables.*"

Xander sighed and rolled his eye. =Whatever. At least Faith doesn't parade around in her underwear and then get snarky when people stare.= A thoughtful pause. =Actually, Faith would grab her own tits, give 'em a good squeeze and demand you answer questions about how hot and gorgeous they are.=

"Ach-ahem" Psylocke's expression was frosty and Jean was obviously trying not to grin. It was a sure thing that their exchange had not been private.

Xander sighed again, leaned further back against the cough and closed his eye. =Fine, fine. I'll pay attention and I won't look at lingerie woman anymore.=

Time passed slowly with just the sound of their breathing and the soft gentle touch of the women's mental fingers testing and touching their psi-link. It was an odd mix of boring and nerve-wracking to sit there and let them poke at his mind like that.

Finally, Jean shifted and sighed. Her eyes sparkled green as she stared at them in confusion.

"Gambit, your mind is, as ever, like trying to grasp smoke in a breeze. I know it's there somewhere close, but I can't touch it or feel it in any real way. Your end of the link is the same way, ethereal at best."

She turned her head slightly to smile at Xander.

"Your mind is actually fairly typical of a non-telepath who has spent a lot of time in close contact with someone with psi-abilities. Basic shields to prevent constant broadcasting of your thoughts, but nothing that could actually keep a telepath out. Your end of the link is the same way."

She grinned and shook her head in amusement.

"The interesting thing is that the link actually seems to dissolve along the way as it reaches towards Gambit. We know that it's still there and it's still strong, but his bio-kinetic charge hides it and the further along the link you go; the more completely it's hidden."

Psyclocke nodded her head in agreement. "It's amazing that the link was able to form in the first place. I can't even imagine how it found Gambit's mind at all."

Gambit and Xander shared a long look, shrugged and then turned back to face the two X-ladies.

"It be magic, heh?"

* * *

**105 – Snowballs**

_Cold! Shock! Cold!_

Gambit tumbled off of the counter he'd been sitting on and almost didn't catch himself before he hit the floor. He was vaguely aware of the fact that Storm, Cyclops, Jean and Wolverine were gaping at him in various degrees of surprise and concern. He couldn't really focus on them; he was too busy trying to sort out the waves of emotion and images that were swamping his brain from the psi-link.

Another rush of _cold-shock-cold_ hit him and it was swiftly followed by understanding and then indignation.

=Gambit!=

His head practically rang from the shout of incensed ruffled pride that blasted through his skull.

=Some twerp just threw a freakin' snowball at me!=

Jean's snort of laughter said louder than words that she had heard Xander's mental complaint. Gambit wouldn't be surprised if she could also hear Bobby's thoughts as well.

"*S'okay, homme. Just de Iceman…he don' mean no harm.*"

The mental equivalent of a feline snort of disbelief echoed in his mind. Gambit steadied himself and quickly walked over to the kitchen sink and looked out of the window positioned over it. He scanned the yard looking for his friend and found him just in time to watch the eight foot tall giant panther get smacked in the face with a rather large snowball.

=Oh, that's it. The next time I have to suffer through coughing up a hairball, I know exactly whose bed I'm gonna leave it in.=

Jean wrinkled up her nose and Gambit shook his head. "*That's gross, mon chat.*"

Another snowball came out of nowhere and smacked up against Xander's left hip. The large cat jumped at the cold shock of it, spun around and growled threateningly. Then, with one mighty leap he was off chasing Bobby as the ice-coated mutant laughed his head off and sped away on an ever moving sheet of ice.

Gambit watched as Xander hit a patch of ice on the ground, skidded in an uncontrolled slide until he hit the grass and then tumbled end over end into a rolling stop. A loud echoing roar of feline frustration shattered the air and then Xander was up on his feet and running again. He didn't seem to have any problems with the ice the next time he hit it and Gambit was sure that it was because he had extended his huge claws. Chunks of ice were sent spraying up into the sunshine behind him as the big cat ran.

Smiling, Gambit watched for a while as Xander chased Bobby around the yard. Before too long, there were multiple slides of shimmering ice decorating the landscape with twisting sweeps and spirals. Xander ran, leapt, snarled, chased, swiped with his claws and growled fiercely. The Iceman stayed far enough ahead to be out of range of Xander's claws, but close enough to continue taunting the big cat with snowballs.

"*Y' never gonna catch him, y' do know that?*"

=Wanna bet?=

Gambit snorted.

"*Xander, homme. De Iceman can make his ice sleds go up t' 180 miles per hour.*"

Xander skidded to a halt, tilted his head and growled as he watched his prey zoom away on a glittering river of ice.

"*He has to come back to the mansion sometime…and I'll be ready and waiting.*"

Then, with the solemn and grave dignity that only a cat can command, Xander turned and walked off.

* * *

**106 – Mellow**

The soft sound of turning pages made Gambit look over at Methos. As he had suspected, the immortal was swiftly becoming Beast's protégé and he was currently nose deep in a large medical tome that routinely used words that were far too big.

Gambit tended to agree with Xander's opinion that the books and articles that Beast was assigning the immortal to read in order to begin modernizing his medical knowledge was 'death by boredom'. Still, they both also acknowledged that Methos was a lot happier and a lot calmer than he had been in months. It was good to see him smiling and relaxing again.

Zombie world had hurt Methos in his soul because Cassandra had sent them there as a punishment for the old man. Methos had taken that punishment to heart. The entire time they had been there, Methos had been grim and focused, overprotective and driven. He had seen their safety as his personal responsibility and adding the Sliders had only intensified that.

Hogwarts had been mostly boring for Gambit and a godsend for Xander. Methos, on the other hand, had been driven almost to the brink by that society. It had offended him in some obscure way and he had patently hated every moment spent there. Gambit was convinced that if it hadn't had been for Xander and his need to learn what Minerva and Albus had to teach that Methos would have demanded that they leave with the Sliders. That greasy haired Severus would never know just how close he had come to dieing a horrific and painful death.

Now?...now Methos was mellowing out and becoming more like the man they had first met. The logical and orderly world of Beast's medical texts seemed to soothe the man in some bizarre way. And for all that the books and articles he read were boring as hell and filled with strange words and concepts, Methos was practically giddy if you asked him about them. Almost like a kid explaining all about his new toy.

Gambit wasn't sure if it was that he was learning something completely new and unheard of. He supposed that after 5000 plus years that it was hard to find something that was different. The whole magic and dimension hopping, dark curses and evil viruses that created zombies were different, but in a bad way. Medicine and genetics textbooks were a lot less evil.

At least for now. Gambit wasn't so sure how Methos would feel if he ever learned about things like Sinister's experiments or the military's Weapon X program. They also hadn't been here long enough for him to get all involved with mutant politics. He was sure that when Methos learned about mutant history, what with Magneto, the Mutant Registration Act, anti-mutant lobbyists and such that it would suck some of the joy out of it for him.

Even so, Gambit would willingly take this quietly happy version of Methos any day.

A black blur flashed in the corner of his eye and Gambit whipped his head around just in time to see Xander, in his tiny housecat sized form, leap from the top of a set of shelves. Little Xander landed on Bobby's head, dug his claws into the young mutant's hair and hissed for all he was worth before leaping down, spinning around and swiping a clawed paw at his ankle.

Bobby yowled in surprise, one hand going up to grab his head and the other reaching down to grab his injured ankle as he hopped about on one foot. Xander took off in a flash, leapt up onto Gambit's lap, half hid in his leather duster and purred loudly.

Methos chuckled, shook his head in amusement and went back to reading his book.

* * *

**107 – Noticeable by their Absence**

He was up on the roof of Xavier's School for Gifted Children when she found him. He was squatted down in a small little niche formed by two angled slopes joining together where the west wing met the main hall. He was frowning mildly, his eyes staring out unseeing at the beautiful sunset staining the sky.

"Remy, my brother…"

He blinked once, twice, slanted a glance over at her, her long white hair waving in the light breeze as she smiled down at him.

"Bonsoir, Stormy."

Her grin widened slightly.

"Do not call me Stormy."

He smirked slightly, but then it faded away back into the mild frown. His eyes drifted from her and went back to staring at the slowly darkening sky. She sighed lightly, stepped closer and sat down next to him, her arms wrapped around her knees.

"If you wish to tell me what is troubling you, Remy, I would be more than willing to sit here and listen."

They sat there together, quietly watching the night bloom into existence around them. Gambit debated with himself for a while. Should he say something about what was bothering him or not? Storm would listen. She would give advice if asked. She would care for his feelings. It was all on him…and if he was willing to actually hear the truth.

Finally he sighed and hung his head for a moment. When he lifted it again, he didn't look at her but went back to watching as the stars slowly became visible.

"Haven't seen Rogue since de first night we arrived."

For just a brief instant, Storm became very still. Then she sighed lightly and nodded.

"No…you wouldn't have, padnat. At first you and your friends were isolated to keep the danger to a minimum. She would have been on the list of visitors if she wanted. Rogue can certainly protect herself." Another pause. "She didn't ask to be allowed to visit though; she was very confused and distraught at first."

Gambit's hands clenched into fists. "Never meant t' hurt her."

"I know…as does she. I can assure you of that." Storm reached out and patted him on the arm lightly. "In fact, she had mentioned wanting a chance to sit down and talk with you when the information about your clone came out. We were shocked of course, but none more so than your double."

She turned her head to face him and waited until he looked her in the eye. She was deadly serious.

"Remy, your double was…shattered at hearing that he was one of Sinister's clones."

Gambit swallowed hard. He could only imagine the horror of learning you weren't who you thought you were. Even worse, you weren't even a real person. He hadn't given much thought to his clone, but now he felt bad for the young man.

"We discovered that he didn't suffer from amnesia. He had been created back when you were with Sinister the first time. He had been kept in stasis for years until we rescued him."

Gambit nodded, turned away and began to watch the night stars once more.

"What that have t' do wit' Rogue?"

Storm sighed and wrapped her arms around her legs once again.

"I think I told you that Rogue had taken your double under her wing when he first arrived?"

Gambit nodded.

"At the time, we thought he was suffering amnesia. Still, he was funny, charming, mysterious with his past and eager to learn new things and explore the world that he thought he had been a part of before his memories were lost." She smiled and shrugged. "Rogue was good for him and good to him. I think, in part, because she was trying to make up for the things she had done to you…even though he had no memory of them."

Gambit snorted, but then paused and nodded.

"Finding out he was a clone nearly destroyed him, Remy. He fled the mansion. Rogue went after him to keep him from doing something stupid like attacking Sinister on his own. She tried to convince him to come back, but he was terrified that Sinister had used some sort of mind-control or telepathy on him and that he would hurt his friends and family here."

Gambit paused and then whipped his head around to stare at his oldest friend.

"He's right. Sinister could have done just that."

Storm nodded. "Yes. That's why Rogue convinced him to go with her to Massachusetts. They are currently with Gen-X. They have asked Emma Frost to comb through his mind as best as possible to check for any hidden traps and commands that Sinister might have left inside of him."

* * *

**108 – The Danger Room**

Gambit smirked at his two companions as they walked into the huge stadium sized underground room with the metal walls, ceiling and floor. Xander was in his fully human form and Gambit had somehow managed to shove them both into standard blue and gold X-Men armored uniforms. Of course that almost hadn't happened. The two of them had taken one look at the uniforms and balked. Methos had muttered about walking targets and Xander had giggled out something about being too old to join the Teen Titans, whatever that was.

It was only after he explained about the material it was made out of that he got them into the uniforms. Reed Richards was one of the world's preeminent scientists and he had developed the material specifically for super-powered beings. It helped regulate body temperature in extreme environmental conditions, limited the amount of damage done by blunt trauma weapons and absorbed a lot of damage from energy weapons. It was also 10 times lighter and 100 times more flexible than Kevlar. The tacky color scheme he blamed directly on Scott Summers.

"Cerebro!" Gambit grinned at his friends and then tilted his head back slightly to speak to the ceiling. "Load program: Cyclops reaction-based-training, level Alpha One Zero Zero, Brood attack."

"Loading." Cerebro's voice was that same eerie electronic version of Charles Xavier's.

"Um…" Xander frowned at him, axe slung over his shoulder. "What exactly is a Cyclops reactor base thingy zero-zero brooding?"

Gambit's grin grew. "Gambit already told y' that de Danger Room create holograms that we can fight for training, heh?"

Two nods, both a bit sardonic and curious.

"De program be a training simulation Scotty wrote for new students. It test y' reactions; both time an' action. De level can go from Alpha 100 all de way t' Omega 1000. De Brood be a type of alien that attack de Earth before. Feel free t' kill 'em all, heh?"

"Loading complete." Cerebro's voice echoed through the Danger Room and Gambit grinned at his friends.

"Ready, homme?"

Both of his friends just smirked at him even as Methos drew his sword. To be honest, even if Scotty hadn't asked him to take the two of them through a training run he'd have wanted to anyway. He'd seen Methos in battle with the undead virus victims of the reality he'd privately termed Zombie World. He knew that the immortal was powerful, deadly and ruthless.

Xander was a different matter. The large cat hadn't been in a position to fight then and they hadn't run across any enemies since. Oh, he had watched Xander spar with Methos many times, but that was different. He knew that Methos thought Xander was a good axe fighter, with some room for improvement. But a spar was a lot different then the chaos of battle and Gambit was curious as to how Xander would do in those conditions.

Plus, Scotty wanted to know if they could be counted on in battle if the Mansion was attacked or if they needed to be protected. So…Danger Room session with the recorders on.

"Cerebro! Run program!"

The metal room faded away even as a city street shimmered into being around them with alien starships in the sky.

"whoa…" Xander's voice was a whisper of awe, but Gambit didn't have time to answer before shrieking and running humans began to appear followed swiftly by the grotesque and fear inspiring forms of Brood soldiers.

"I take it that those…things are the Brood."

Gambit smirked. "Yep. Lovely, heh?"

Xander glanced over long enough to make a face at him that eloquently spoke of his disgust and then the fight was on.

* * *

**109 – The Courier**

Gambit frowned at the phone and considered walking away.

After all, Beast had Xander and Methos down in his lab and as a good friend he should probably go save them from an afternoon of needles, testing and long unpronounceable words. On the other hand, Methos seemed to like Beast and his lab. He wanted to spend as much time there learning mutant genetics as he could. He most likely would not take well to being 'saved' and a pissy Methos was a dangerous Methos. Plus Xander really did need to have the tests done if Beast was to figure out the virus, so…

The phone just sat there and mocked him with its presence. He picked it up, his finger hovering over the buttons.

Jake's image washed into his mind. Clean cut young man in a Fox-Mulder-FBI-Suit. Snarky, fun, demanding and whiny. The closest thing he had to a best friend during that whole post-Antarctica fiasco. Then Jake's image wavered into the sexy, curvy and super hot form of Jackie; the female version of said best friend. The form Jake was now mostly trapped in due to the fact that Gambit hadn't been fast enough, smart enough or just plain good enough to save his best friend from the warped mercy of Mr. Sinister.

He hung up the phone without dialing.

But surely by now Jake had either forgiven him or found a way to reverse the transformation. Right? It had been months. And Jake was a smart guy with lots of resources at hand. Plus he had been in enough hairy spots that he would understand. Okay, hanging out with Gambit had jacked the danger level up by several notches and the level of strange and bizarre crashed through the roof. That wasn't Gambit's fault though. It could have happened to anyone.

He picked up the phone and dialed almost all of the numbers and then paused.

On the other hand, it really had been a long time. Maybe Jake was pissed that Gambit hadn't called in what seemed to be forever. Maybe Jake thought that Gambit had abandoned him because he was turned into a woman. It was possible that Jake thought Gambit didn't like Jake anymore and didn't consider the man a friend now that their adventure was over. That wasn't true, though. He had literally been out of touch and he had Xander and Methos as proof. Jake would have to believe his story of traveling to other realities. After all, he and Jake had traveled through time together. That is as long as Jake didn't think that Gambit had replaced him with Xander and Methos.

He hung up the phone and glared at it.

This was stupid. Gambit should not be afraid to call his friend. Jake wouldn't get angry and demand that he never call again like he was some scorned ex-girlfriend. Right? He wouldn't get all clingy and strange over Xander and Methos. No. Not Jake. After all, this was the guy that had balls big enough to flirt with and hit on Sabertooth as the three of them waltzed in unannounced into one of Sinister's secret labs. This is the same guy that followed Gambit as he broke into Dr. Doom's castle in Latveria and then jumped into the time machine after him. Jake wouldn't get all insecure after only a few months of no contact.

Gambit picked up the phone and listened to the dial tone.

Of course he had no idea if Jake called the mansion and talked to his clone. It was very possible that the clone had screwed things up simply by not having a clue who Jake was. Remembering how he had been at the same age as his clone seemed to be, Gambit was sure that any meeting between the clone and Jake would have ended with the clone flirting and trying to get female-Jake into bed. Gambit knew from personal experience that Jake had one hell of a right hook. He wondered if the clone had found that out as well.

Gambit hung up the phone.

=Gambit!=

Gambit nearly fell over at the ringing shout that only he could hear.

"*What!*" he mentally snarled in reply.

=Pick up the damn phone and call Jake or I swear on the Hellmouth that I'll sell your favorite set of lock-picks and your collection of Cézanne original paintings on Ebay!=

"*Don' y' dare y' flee bitten raggedy chat!*"

The psi-link carried a sense of understanding buried under aggravation and the ghost sensation of Xander getting a needle in his furry rump.

=Just call the guy, damn it. I'm so not in the mood for your brooding.=

Gambit glared in the general direction of the Med Lab for a long moment and then picked up the phone and stabbed the buttons in anger. Stupid cat! Then, before he knew it and while he was still unprepared, the line on the other side of the connection began to ring. Gambit blinked in surprise and had a brief moment of confusion as he wondered if Xander had taken over for long enough to dial the phone for him. He didn't really think so since he hadn't felt like he was sucked down the psi-link into Xander's body, but…

"Hello?" A soft feminine voice that he knew so well cut off his thoughts and made him catch his breath.

"Hello. Is anyone there?" A little undertone of mild anger rode under the words and Gambit gasped.

"Jake?..."

A long pause and then the voice spoke in tones of hope and disbelief, "Remy?"

* * *

**110 – The Art of Grieving**

Gambit was in a ridiculously good mood. Jake wasn't angry at him. Okay, well, yeah he was, but no more so than usual. Which was more on the annoyance end of the 'I hate you' scale then on the unforgiving homicidal end. Normal for Remy and Jake.

They had talked on the phone for hours as Gambit tried to explain about reality hopping and several-years-out-of-date clones even as Jake caught Gambit up on the latest in mutant politics, financial matters and the goings on in the Intelligence community. It had been fun.

And cathartic in a way. He had been back in his home dimension, living in the X-Mansion with all of his teammates for a while now. And yet, after a few hours of chit-chat on the phone with Jake he suddenly felt like he'd come home. He hadn't realized that something was missing until it was suddenly back.

All this time he had been grieving for a relationship that wasn't really dead.

Methos shifted into his personal space on his right and elbowed him sharply in the ribs. He glared at the immortal only to find the old man smirking across the porch and out into the sun drenched yard to where Xander was standing and talking with Storm. His sister of the heart looked as beautiful as ever with her long flowing white hair and chocolate colored skin. She was an amazing woman and amazingly beautiful. Whenever Gambit contemplated the Goddess Stormy worshipped, it was no surprise that he pictured the deity with his beloved sister's face.

Xander, on the other hand, looked like he had stepped out of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean…or perhaps a furry hentai anime. Xander was currently in the form that was mostly human, but with cat's eyes, a cat's tail, ears, claws and of course, fangs. The little house elf Bobbin that Albus had assigned to Xander back in Hogwarts had gone on a hyperactive flurry of clothes designing when he'd first learned to shift his form. And if the house elves thought of Methos as a Knight in armor, they saw Xander as a pirate with the eye-patch. The clothes he had been given had been filled with every pirate cliché' known to man. He and Methos had howled with laughter over it, but Xander had been too giddy over being able to actually wear pants to care much.

Now, here he was standing in the back garden of the X-Mansion in woolen knee breeches and tall stiff leather boots with a loose flowing silk blouse that gathered at the neck, shoulders and wrists. He was armed, of course. Knives, guns, stakes and axe. Plus the eye-patch. Taken all together, he really did look like a pirate. Gambit would only be mildly surprised if Captain Jack Sparrow came stumbling along looking for his rum with Bill Turner and Elizabeth Swain trudging along behind him and bitching about something.

Of course, Xander's unfortunate wardrobe issues aside, the thing that had caught Methos' attention and now held Gambit's was the fact that Xander was flirting with Storm. And apparently, it was working because she was flirting back. Gambit wasn't sure if his sister liked the whole kitty-cat eyes and ears or if she had a thing for pirates.

They watched, himself frowning lightly and Methos smirking wildly, as Xander and Storm flirted. The weather witch finally smiled widely, blushed lightly and turned around to sashay off, her hips swaying gently from side to side. Xander stood there, grinning goofily at her for a moment before he turned and beamed a big smile up at them.

It didn't take long for the felinoid man to dash over to the porch and charge up the steps towards them. He bounced on the toes of his feet.

"Storm's funny." He huffed out a purring laugh. "She said she was gonna make me a cat-nip stuffed pillow."

Methos snorted, coughed, tried not to laugh for a long moment and then gave it up as a bad job as he dissolved into laughter. Xander, instead of getting upset, simply grinned widely and nodded his head in amused agreement.

Gambit just smirked and shook his head. "Y' such a cheap date."

"Hey!" The indignation was patently fake and Methos' laughter had turned into quiet giggles.

"Gotta admit that your taste in women is brilliant, but I doubt that Gambit's sister is going to settle for a simple toy. She seems more of a champagne, diamonds and death-defying heroics sort of girl."

Gambit raised up one eyebrow as he considered Methos' words. That was actually a fairly good assessment of his Stormy.

"Oui. That she is. Stormy's one classy femme." Gambit turned a burning-eyed glare at his friend. "An' don' think that Gambit won' go all big brother on y' ass for flirtin' with mon soeur, either."

Xander stilled instantly and gave Gambit a guileless look of extreme confusion. He could even feel the shocked uncertainty over the psi-link.

"Um…wasn't flirting." He blinked. "Um, I mean, I didn't mean to. Flirt that is."

Mild panic flared over the psi-link. "You don't think she thought that I was all with the flirty and the wanting to be all relationshipy, do you? 'Cause so not date-boy here."

Methos tilted his head slightly and studied Xander with a look that was a mix of confused curiosity and mild concern. Xander seemed to inspire that look a lot. "Well, it looked like the two of you were flirting with each other from here. Couldn't hear what you were talking about, but…" He nodded his head. "I"ll go out on a limb and say that you looked flirty."

Gambit frowned even harder when the mild panic coming across the psi-link instantly morphed into sour regret and black-tinged guilt.

"Oh. Oh no. I…" Xander swallowed hard, haunted shadows filling his one dark eye as he turned to look off in the direction that Storm had gone. "I didn't mean to… I mean, I'm all issues having over this thing with Anya."

Xander reached up and scratched the back of his head. "I thought it was over, ya know? She was dead. I mourned for her. I… I was all messed up for a long time after she died, but I was getting better, ya know? But now…"

Gambit sighed and nodded. He did know. With the possibility that Anya wasn't dead or that she was back from the dead, Xander was all messed up again. Part of him had clung to her memory and didn't want to let go, but part of him had grieved, healed and was ready to move on. So he flirted with pretty ladies all without realizing what he was doing until he remembered about Anya. Then he was messed up again with fresh guilt and grief, wondering if he should stay loyal to a memory or move on.

Xander stared off into space, lost in his thoughts. Gambit and Methos shared a look of concern. This could cause problems if they weren't careful, but was it their place to get involved?


End file.
